Small City School Districts’ Capacity for Improvement and the Struggle for Educational Equity

Abstract

The problems faced by many small city school districts are often overshadowed by concerns for big city and rural school districts. We focus on some of the challenges faced by three small city school districts in Massachusetts with high percentages of students from low-income homes. Comparisons are made between these districts and three relatively affluent, high-achieving districts along with three big city districts, also in Massachusetts. We found that the three small city districts with high percentages of low-income homes struggle to provide significant percentages of their students with a high-quality education. We hope policy makers and researchers devote greater attention to helping small city educators overcome their challenges.