Closure of public schools damages student outcomes

Contrary to what is stated to justify school closings, research shows that predicted cost savings often fail to materialize and students are damaged in significant ways.

Dallas ISD closed eleven schools for what amounts to a drop in the budget bucket. One year later the district has the largest fund balance in history.

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"According to the Consortium for Chicago School Research, a leading research authority on education in Chicago, Arne Duncan's closure of dozens of schools as part of Renaissance 2010 provided no benefit to students, since the vast majority were simply transferred from one low-performing school to another. 

A recent brief on closures from CReATE notes actual damage - transferred students, who felt stigmatized, had lower test scores and higher risks of dropping out. The Consortium did find improved outcomes for the six percent who landed in academically strong schools and found supportive teachers, but that doesn't help the 94 percent who stagnated or lost ground, nor make up for the disruption to those children and families. It does not compensate for the spikes in violence when established gang routes were disrupted, nor for the inability of other schools to cope with repeated influxes of new, struggling students (some moved four times in just three years)." 

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The color of school closings

National Opportunity To Learn Campaign

"Mass school closings have become a hallmark of today's dominant education policy agenda. But rather than helping students, these closures disrupt whole communities. And as U.S. Department of Education data suggests, the most recent rounds of mass closings in Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia disproportionately hurt Black and low-income students."
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"There is no evidence to suggest that school closures work. Despite what policymakers say to justify these mass closures, reports have shown that the majority of student who are affected do not get placed in high performing schools. And though closures are often touted as a way for districts to save money in tough economic times, those savings often fail to materialize and can in reality cost taxpayers millions in hidden costs."

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"A Proposal for Sustainable School Transformation."

Protesters from 21 cities say closing schools violates civil rights

Huffington Post - 1-29-2013 - Joy Resmovits

WASHINGTON -- "The standards-based education reform movement calls school change "the civil rights issue of our time." But about 220 mostly African American community organizers, parents and students from 21 cities from New York to Oakland, Calif., converged on Washington Tuesday to tell U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan he's getting it backwards on school closures.

Members of the group, a patchwork of community organizations called the Journey for Justice Movement, have filed several Title VI civil rights complaints with the Education Department Office of Civil Rights, claiming that school districts that shut schools are hurting minority students. While most school closures are decided locally, the Education Department's School Improvement Grant gives under performing school districts money for shakeups or turnarounds, including closures. 

The meeting became heated at times. "The voices of the people directly impacted can no longer be ignored," said Jitu Brown, an organizer from the South Side of Chicago. "This type of mediocrity is only accepted because of the race of the students who are being served." He called school closures "a violation of our human rights," since many communities are left without neighborhood schools after districts shut them down."

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“I have been denied the right to a quality education,” said Gavin Alston, 12, whose Chicago school was shuttered last year. “We have no middle or elementary schools in my neighborhood anymore.”

Federal Complaint Alleges City Policy Discriminates Against Minorities, Poor - Wall Street Journal

Protesters from 18 cities say closing schools violates civil rights

Education Dept. to Hear School Closing Complaints

School Closures Challenged=Federal Complaint Alleges City Policy Discriminates Against Minorities, Poor

School closings discriminatory, coalition tells U.S. Education Department