Evaluation of Green Dot’s Locke Transformation Project: Supplemental Report on Cohort 2 Student Outcomes

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CRESST conducted a multi-year evaluation of a major school reform project at Alain Leroy Locke High School, historically one of California’s lowest performing secondary schools. Beginning in 2007, Locke High School transitioned into a set of smaller, Green Dot Charter High Schools, subsequently referred to as Green Dot Locke (GDL) in this supplemental report. This report extended the previous report, which tracked the first and second cohorts of 9th-graders who entered GDL in fall 2007 and 2008 respectively thru the 2010-11 school year, by bringing the second cohort of students to graduation. The CRESST evaluation, employing a rigorous quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, found statistically significant, positive effects for the GDL transformation including improved achievement, school persistence, graduation, and completion of college preparatory courses.