Closing public schools is a political minefield — just ask Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who had a tough re-election bid this year after dozens of school closures on his watch left voters concerned.
But what do school closings mean for student achievement?
Critics of closings have long argued it not only undermines communities but also destabilizes students. They say a child’s ability to learn is disrupted when routines and trusted adults are ripped away.
Now a new study from the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute concludes that students displaced by school closings actually tend to make gains faster on math and reading tests than their peers in schools that stay open.
“Everyone agrees that shutting down low-performing schools is beneficial to those students who have not yet entered them,” write the authors. “However, we show that this is also the case for the students currently attending them.”
The study tracked more than 20,000 Ohio children who were students in nearly 200 traditional and charter schools that closed between 2006 and 2012. It found that, three years after their schools closed:
• Students from traditional public schools that closed ended up gaining the equivalent of 49 extra days of learning in reading and 34 extra days in math.
• Students from shuttered charter schools had 46 extra days of learning in math and no statistically significant extra days in reading.
• Students from shuttered traditional public schools who went to “higher-quality” schools (as judged by test scores) had the equivalent of 69 extra days of learning in reading and 63 extra days in math.
• Students from shuttered charter schools who went to higher-quality schools had 88 extra days of learning in reading and 58 extra days in math.
The findings zero in on math and reading test scores, which — many critics of ed-reform argue — fail to capture students’ social-emotional well being.
The study offers no specifics about the fate of children who end up in lower-quality schools, about four in 10.
