Talent Development High School Model:
Findings From MDRC Evaluation

A Forum — June 17, 2005

This forum explored the results of a five-year evaluation of the earliest attempt to scale up Talent Development, a comprehensive high school reform initiative piloted in Baltimore, which has since spread to 83 high schools in 32 districts in 20 states.

Talent Development produced substantial gains in educational engagement and achievement for first-time ninth-graders when it was used in five low-performing schools in Philadelphia, according to the independent evaluation released May 26, 2005 by MDRC, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization in New York City. MDRC also found some signs that gains for those students persisted through graduation, although the model’s impact on students who were repeating ninth grade was negligible.

James J. Kemple, Director of MDRC’s K-12 Education Policy Area, was the principal investigator. He said the positive results have national significance because the Talent Development model encompasses many elements of school reform, including three types of small learning communities: ninth-grade Success Academies with a core curriculum, student-teacher teams, a double dose of English and mathematics, and a freshman seminar; after-school Twilight Academies for students with academic or disciplinary deficits, and Career Academies for grades 10-12. Other key elements are the focus on critical reading and math skills (including early recovery courses), strong support and extensive planning time for teachers, and a combination of curricular and organizational changes.

Corinne Herlihy, MDRC Research Associate and co-author of Talent Development evaluation reports, said the researchers examined several years of student outcomes from the five schools in Philadelphia before and after they implemented Talent Development. They also did that for similar schools in Philadelphia that did not use Talent Development. Then they compared the trends in the two groups of schools.

Average gains by first-time ninth-graders in the Talent Development schools significantly exceeded gains in the comparison schools in attendance rates, number of credits earned (particularly in Algebra), and in the likelihood of being promoted on time to the 10th and 11th grades. Their gains in scores on state-mandated tests in 11th grade were modestly better in math and inconsistent in reading. Graduation rates fell in the other schools, but rose slightly for those students in the Talent Development schools.

However, the initiative had less impact on the other one-third of students -- those in Talent Development schools who repeated ninth-grade for a full year or more. Among those students, most gains were small, and were similar to those in the other schools. Also, for these repeating students, comparison schools outpaced Talent Development schools in reducing the percentage of students exiting the schools system.

Kemple translated the percentages into real-world terms. Among 500 first-time ninth-graders, the improvements equaled an extra two weeks of attendance for the average student, 125 more students passing Algebra their freshman year, and an extra 40 students moving on to the next grade on schedule. In addition, it appears that more recent cohorts of students are making greater progress than earlier cohorts, as the model is adjusted in response to early results.

Lois Powell Mondesire, Principal of Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia for the last four years, made a joint presentation with Laura Schulz, Senior Organizational Facilitator with Talent Development High Schools at the Johns Hopkins University, who spent most of the last seven years working on planning and implementation at Strawberry Mansion. They said that the school climate improved, with fewer fights and arrests. Freshmen and teachers were better connected, as were the teaching teams and students within the career academies.

Under a block schedule, each student attends four 90-minute classes daily, so that a course can be completed in an 18-week semester, instead of a year. That lets a student who is below grade level in reading or math get a “double dose” of those subjects – a catch-up course in the first semester and a grade-level course in the second – and still qualify for timely promotion.

Mondesire, her predecessor and most teachers at the school strongly supported the program. They suggested modifications (such as extending “double dose” opportunities beyond the freshman year) that strengthened the original model. In Philadelphia, which has 22 non-selective public high schools, Strawberry Mansion become one of the two to make adequate yearly progress under federally approved state standards.

James McPartland, Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools and Research Professor of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University, leads the team of practitioners and researchers who have spent 10 years assembling the Talent Development model. He said the positive results from this independent evaluation showed the value of reliable, long-term federal support for research and development in education.

Effective reforms require extra resources. Talent Development costs such as materials, coaches and facilitators added $250 to $350 per year to spending per student. Switching teachers from a traditional schedule (including one 45-minute planning period) to a four-period block schedule (including one 90-minute planning period) adds another $250 per student to the base cost of about $7,200 per student in Philadelphia high schools. Obtaining more federal resources for comprehensive high school reform would be easier if the debate in Washington over extra resources could be separated from the debate over testing and accountability.

The necessary elements of comprehensive high school reform include (1) organizational change to create smaller, personalized learning communities that are safe, serious and caring; (2) high-interest, low-frustration material for children who have fallen behind, which meets them at their current level and then raises their skills so they can handle high-stakes courses, and (3) teacher support, including planning time and on-site follow-up, which in Talent Development includes a three-person team of organizational and instructional coaches.

Future improvements contemplated for the Talent Development model include adding a “triple dose” approach for students who still lag after a double dose in reading or math, different approaches for students repeating ninth grade, more support for teachers in the upper grades, and more emphasis on family involvement, McPartland said.

During the subsequent discussion, participants said challenges in implementing the reforms include the extra personnel costs, financial pressures on school districts, policy changes linked to turnover among principals and district leaders, last-minute hiring that leaves little time to introduce newly assigned teachers to the reforms, public ignorance of positive outcomes, and the need for more research into how adolescents acquire higher order skills in reading and math.

Copies of the evaluation report, Making Progress Toward Graduation: Evidence from the Talent Development High School Model, can be obtained through www.mrdc.org.

The report was funded by the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) under a contract with the U.S. Department of Education. Supplementary funding for special initiatives within the evaluation came from the Ford Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Speaker Bios

Dr. James J. Kemple (Ed.M, 1986, Ed.D., 1989) is the Director of MDRC’s K-12 Education Policy Area. He has served as principal investigator and research director on a variety of MDRC's education, employment and training, and welfare-to-work program evaluations. He is the Principal Investigator for the Career Academies Evaluation and the National Evaluation of the Talent Development model. He is the Principal Investigator for the Evaluation of Adolescent Literacy Intervention strategies and he headed the design and site recruitment tasks for the National Reading First Impact Study. As a practitioner, Dr. Kemple taught high school math and managed a three-phased supplementary academic and high school placement program for disadvantaged youth in Washington, D.C.

Corinne Herlihy is a Research Associate at MDRC and is currently working on the Evaluation of the Talent Development comprehensive school reform model, as well as the National Reading First Impact Study. As part of the Talent Development team, Ms. Herlihy has developed data management strategies for quantitative data obtained from school districts and conducts analysis of school and student level data. Ms. Herlihy is a co-author of MDRC’s reports on Talent Development’s impact on the engagement and performance of middle and high school students. Prior to her graduate studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Ms. Herlihy was a teacher of mathematics at the middle and high school levels.

James McPartland is Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools and Research Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. For the past ten years, he has led the team of researchers and practitioners that developed and evaluated a comprehensive reform model for high schools—the Talent Development High School. His current research examines the processes through which smaller high schools with innovative literacy programs for low-performing students become successfully implemented and have impacts on student engagement and learning.

Lois Powell Mondesire has been the proud Principal and Instructional Director of Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia for the past four years. Ms. Mondesire has enjoyed a successful career in Philadelphia as a Teacher (Certified K-12), an Instructional Facilitator, and an Instructional Vice Principal. Ms. Mondesire truly believes that "Our students succeed because we refuse to let them fail."

Laura Schulz is a Senior Organizational Facilitator with Talent Development High Schools (TDHS) at Johns Hopkins University. She has worked with TDHS sites around the country and has spent the majority of the last 7 years working with Strawberry Mansion High School. As a practitioner, Ms. Schulz taught middle school and high school special education. She was also a teacher and team leader at the first Talent Development High School.

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