This paper explores how high schools, through their structures and organizations, may influence their students' decisions about whether to stay in school until graduation or drop out. Traditional explanations for dropout behavior have focused on individual students' social background and academic behaviors. What high schools do to push out or hold…

Finds that teachers' professional efficacy is related to the environment in which they practice. Explains higher levels of efficacy in Catholic schools by organizational differences. Cites principal leadership and communal organization as essential to teacher satisfaction. Suggests fostering cooperative environments and reasonable teacher autonomy…

This study compares the effects of single-sex and coeducational secondary schooling. Results indicate that single-sex schools deliver specific advantages to their students, especially female students. Single-sex schools may facilitate adolescent academic development by providing an environment where social and academic concerns are separated.…

Examines the effect of school gender organization on gender differences in teachers' perceptions of organizational control. Results from 629 mathematics and English teachers reveal that in coeducational schools and boys' schools, male teachers perceived greater influence over school policies outside of the classroom than did female teachers.…

This study examined the impact of attending restructured schools on the achievement and engagement of young adolescents. The restructuring movement is placed within the conceptual framework that favors the development of more communally organized schools, as opposed to the largely bureaucratic model of most American schools. Using a subsample of…

In this study, we explore how high schools, through their structures and organization, may influence students' decisions to stay in school or drop out. Traditional explanations for dropout behavior have focused on students' social background and academic behaviors. What high schools might do to push out or hold students has received less empirical…

The call to restructure American education has captured the imagination of reformers across the country, yet it has not produced a coherent agenda for changing schools. This study investigates how the structure of secondary schools affects learning. Using a sample of 9,631 students in 789 U.S. high schools with 3 waves of data from the National…

Reports on a study of the impact of attending restructured schools on the achievement and engagement of 8,845 eighth graders from public, Catholic, and independent schools. Finds modest, but consistently positive, effects on both achievement and engagement. Also finds that students attending smaller schools demonstrated more academic achievement.…