Chapter 8: The Costs And Benefits Of School Closure For Students

The closure of urban public schools in poor and working class communities of color has, since 2008, become normalized as a school reform strategy. Although sometimes defended as necessary because of budget deficits or diminishing enrollment, closures have also been touted as a strategy for improving educational options for youth attending low-performing schools. This chapter reviews research about the experiences of students displaced by closure and finds mixed evidence. There is some evidence that, under certain conditions (e.g., transferring from a low-performing to a high-performing school), students show increased academic learning, particularly in math, relative to their test performance prior to closure. Often, however, because higher performing schools are not available or accessible to displaced students, displaced students either do not show improvement or show decline. Moreover, there are a number of other variables that complicate findings about student outcomes, including the age of students, the political context of the closure, the specific academic subject measured, and the experiences of students with transportation and after-school opportunities. The chapter argues that in addition to weighing empirical findings, policy decisions about closure raise normative questions about people’s right to participate in decisions that affect their lives. The conclusion suggests ways that more robust opportunities for public deliberation could be supported through policy.