Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

National Report on School Closure Misses Opportunity to Illustrate Moral Dimensions of School Closure

  • 10/24/17
East Lansing, Mich.— A report from the Hoover Institution’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO) offered a comprehensive analysis of the impact of closing low-performing schools. The report included data from 1,522 low-performing schools from 26 states. An academic review finds the report to be a valuable addition to the research on school closures.

Matthew Gaertner, SRI International, and Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado Boulder, reviewed the report, Lights Off: Practice and Impact of Closing Low-Performing Schools, for the Think Twice think tank review project. Think Twice, a project of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), is funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.

Though the report obscures some of its most important findings, Gaertner and Kirshner describe the report as one of the most comprehensive datasets ever assembled for school closure research. The reviewers note that the study was a careful, rigorous study with some missed opportunities for further analysis.

The original report found:

  1. Schools enrolling higher proportions of minority and low-income students were more likely to be closed;
  2. Test scores declined for students who transferred to schools with lower test-score performance and for students who transferred to schools with equivalent test-score performance; and
  3. Slightly less than half of students transferred to higher performing schools after a closure; those who did showed academic improvement relative to their matched peers.

Gaertner and Kirshner add that the report should have better highlighted the disproportionality of the school closures and the inadequate number of higher quality receiving schools. The reviewers were also concerned about the statistical modeling, which threatens the validity of subgroup analyses (specifically as it relates to charter school comparisons).

In their conclusion, the reviewers say that they would have liked to see the report acknowledge the moral dimensions of school closures: “Decisions about school closure and broader questions of reform raise normative political questions about participation and rights – including questions about the voices of students and their parents.”

Find the review on the GLC website at www.greatlakescenter.org

Featured

  • 144-Year-Old High-School Campus Debuts New Academic Facility

    San Diego High School (SDHS) in San Diego, Calif., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new student services and classroom building; the project is part of a larger SDHS Whole Site Modernization project that began in 2022.

  • Northeastern University Breaks Ground on New Housing Community

    Northeastern University recently announced the groundbreaking of a new student housing community on its campus in Boston, Mass., according to a news release. The university is partnering with American Campus Communities (ACC) for development of the project, which will have the capacity for 1,200 students and has a scheduled completion date of fall 2028.

  • Niles West High School Natatorium Renovation

    Natatoriums are highly specialized spaces, and luminaires in this setting face several unique challenges. Perhaps the most significant is corrosion, which is exacerbated by high indoor humidity, condensation, and pool chemicals, often resulting in material degradation in luminaires not certified to perform in corrosive environments.

  • Indiana Wesleyan University Schedules Grand Opening for New Welcome Center

    Indiana Wesleyan University recently announced that it will soon open a new Welcome Center on its campus in Marion, Ind., according to a news release. The facility will serve as the home base for prospective students and their families to learn more about the university and student life there. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for February 19.