The Benefits of the CES Approach: A Look at Recent Research

The Coalition of Essential Schools is one of the most studied school design movements and has documented the process and outcomes of school reform since its inception 30 years ago. On these pages, we gather research, from internal and external sources, which examine schools using multiple measures of students’ knowledge, understanding, and performance to document the impact of CES efforts rather than relying on any one measure that may not adequately reflect students’ true proficiencies. We have found that students who attend Essential Schools across the country are making striking academic progress.

The CES Small Schools Project created a network of nationwide CES schools.
Read about our results creating new start-up small high schools and restructuring large comprehensive high schools into small autonomous schools.

External reports on CES schools have found that these schools are more effective than comparable schools. Click here to read about the most recent reports.