Archives for category: Closing schools
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Puerto Rico Divided Over Mass School Closures: Elites For, Teachers Against

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2018 //
5

From Politico Morning Education:

PUERTO RICO SCHOOL CLOSURES DEBATE HEATS UP: School closures will move ahead in Puerto Rico as tensions between the territory’s Education Department and teachers union escalate. Earlier this week, the Tribunal Supremo of Puerto Rico ruled that a plan to close dozens of schools in Puerto Rico does not “directly and substantially interfere with the right to an education,” el Vocero de Puerto Rico reports.

— Officials there celebrated the victory, even as teachers unions and civil rights advocates continue to oppose the plan. The Puerto Rican civil rights commission this week called for a one-year moratorium on the closures, calling the process “disorganized” and “directionless,” according to El Nuevo Dia. Education Secretary Julia Keleher issued a statement in response, saying that “the process was based on data … and responded to the urgent need to address the consistent decline in school enrollment.”

— The ruling only exacerbated tensions between Keleher and the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the largest teachers union in the island. During a press conference earlier this week, union President Aida Díaz decried the ruling as harmful to displaced students and teachers, and called Keleher “machiavellian.”

Would Puerto Rico be a nice destination for recruits from TFA? Especially if they don’t have to be there for the hot summer months.

Categories Closing schools, Puerto Rico, Teachers, Unions

Leonie Haimson: What Matters Most in Really Reforming Our Schools: Must Watch!

By dianeravitch
June 8, 2018 //
12

Leonie Haimson is a true school reformer, unlike the hedge funders, tycoons, and entrepreneurs who have falsely claimed that title. She is a dedicated education activist who has led the fight over many years for fully funded public schools and student privacy.

In this video, she talks with veteran journalist Bob Herbert about the mistakes of those in power who rely on standardized testing as the sole definition of success, about segregation, about the damage wrought by charter schools, and about the changes that will benefit all students.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Class size, Class Size Matters Org, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, New York City, Privatization, Testing

Chicago: The Measurable Result of Closing 50 Schools in One Day in 2013

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2018 //
37

Julie Vassilatos read the report of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research about the closing of 50 schools in one day in 2013. She knew that there was no academic gain for the children affected.

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-public-fools/2018/05/in-the-wake-of-the-mass-school-closings-one-measurable-result/

But there was one measurable result that no one talked about: Sorrow.

“The sorrow of children whose schools were closed.

“It’s measurable. The researchers measured it. They liken the losses that the students–and teachers, staff, and families–experienced, to grief. The technical term for it is “institutional mourning.” Children and staff talked about losing their school “families,” spoke of the forced separations like a divorce, or a death. Generations-long relationships with schools ended abruptly after a pained, humiliating school year of battling to keep them open–schools that served as neighborhood anchors, social roots, home of beloved teachers. Most of the 50 shuttered schools have since stood empty and fallow after the closings, untended eyesores perpetually in the view of the kids who lived nearby, monuments to loss.

“Thousands of children who experienced this loss, all at once. And it’s long term–it did not go away in a week or a month or a year.

“Does it matter to anyone? Does it matter to the mayor? Would he say: but what is that to me?

“What is it to him? The wholesale destruction of 50 communities in predominantly poor and minority neighborhoods, for no measurable benefit, leaving the measurable sadness of thousands of children in its wake?

“We can only hope it’s the beginning of the end of mayoral control of CPS.”

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Closing schools, Disruption, Emanuel, Rahm

Leonie Haimson: Parent Activists Win a Temporary Restraining Order to Prevent NYC ED from Closing PS 25

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2018 //
14

Parents have been outraged by the New York City Department of Education’s policy of closing schools as a “reform” strategy. They were especially outraged by the decision to close PS 25 in Brooklyn. The DOE says it is “under enrolled,” which it is, but it is one of the most successful elementary schools in the city. Since it is doing such a good job, why not recruit more students instead of closing it? One answer: closing it would allow Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter school to take over the entire building.

Leonie Haimson led an effort to save PS 25. She got a lawyer to sue the DOE pro bono, and yesterday her group won a temporary restraining order which will likely save PS 25 for at least another year. If the DOE comes to its senses, it may save the school, period.

The judge ” seemed impressed with our research showing how all the other 33 schools DOE offered these students to apply to 1- all had far lower positive impact ratings 2- many of them were miles away, 19 of the schools in Staten Island alone 3- 25 were overcrowded, and 4- none had class sizes as small as PS 25. And the DOE has not offered to provide busing for the students.

“In short, she was impressed that in most every other proposal to close schools, the DOE had promised higher performing schools that students could apply to, but they didn’t in this case, because according to DOE’s own estimation, there are only three other public elementary schools as good as PS 25 in the entire city and they are full.

“In fact, the City itself admitted in their response papers to the lawsuit that according to the school performance dashboard, PS 25 is the “second best public elementary school in Brooklyn and the fourth best in the City, and that PS 25 outperforms charter school other than Success Academy Bronx 2 in its positive impact on student achievement and attendance.”

Why in the world should the city close one of its highest performing schools? The Bloomberg administration closed scores of schools, routinely, without a second thought.

Good work, Leonie!

PS: The annual dinner of Leonie Haimson’s organization, Class Size Matters, will hold its annual fundraising dinner on June 19. All are invited to attend. The price is modest, as these dinners go. Invitation to follow.

Categories Class Size Matters Org, Closing schools, New York City, Resistance

Chicago: What Happened to the Kids When 50 Public Schools Were Closed

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2018 //
14

Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago will go down in American history as the mayor who closed 50 public schools one day.

It was a brutal act. It showed his contempt for public education. While he closed public schools, he continued to open privately managed charter schools. Perhaps he hopes one day he hopes a charter school will be named for him, as one is named for billionaire Governor Bruce Rainer and billionaire Penny Pritzker.

But what about the children? Reformers like Emanuel think that closing schools is great for students. He thinks they thrive on disruption. They don’t.

A new study concludes that the children whose schools were closed suffered academic losses. Duh.

Here is the report in The Chicago Reporter.

Mike Klonsky writes about the report and the school closing disaster here.

Mike writes:

The study concludes:

“Closing schools — even poorly performing ones — does not improve the outcome of displaced children, on average. Closing under-enrolled schools may seem like a viable solution to policymakers who seek to address fiscal deficits and declining enrollment, but our findings shows that closing schools caused large disruptions without clear benefits for students.”

CTU’s Jesse Sharkey, said the report “validates” that the closures “were marred by chaos, a desperate lack of resources, lost libraries and labs, grief, trauma, damaging disruption, and a profound disrespect for the needs of low-income black students and the educators who teach them.”

Important to note… It wasn’t just Chicago. Mass school closings were a requirement of then Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s Race to The Top policy. Unless school districts closed schools, they were threatened with loss of millions of dollars from the D.O.E. An epidemic of closings and teacher firings, mainly in urban districts, followed in the wake of RTTT.

Who thought it would be good for the kids in the closing schools? Arne Duncan started it. He made school closings a feature of Race to the Top. He (and his sidekick Peter Cunningham, now editor of billionaire-funded Education Post) defended it as a “remedy” for low-scoring schools. Duncan’s reform program in Chicago was called Renaissance 2010, built on the idea of closing 100 schools and replacing them with charters. Of course it didn’t work. Kids need stability not disruption.

Categories Closing schools, Disruption, Duncan, Arne

Jitu Brown: “We Call for a Moratorium on School Privatization Now!”

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2018 //
8

Watch this powerful 2-minute video, in which civil rights leader Jitu Brown tells the dramatic story of the Dyett hunger strike in Chicago, which lasted 34 days and compelled the city to keep Dyett open and invest $16 Million in the new Dyett.

Jitu Brown leads the Journey for Justice, which is leading a national campaign to stop school closings, privatization, and charter schools. They are fighting to create thousands of community schools.

This video was created by videographers Michael Elliot and Kemala Karmen. It was funded by the Network for Public Education.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Civil Rights, Closing schools, Courage, Education Industry, Equity, Justice, Privatization

A Short Video About the Real Cost of School Closings

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2018 //
11

In 2013, Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools in one day. If for no other reason, he will go down in history as the mayor who shuttered 50 public schools on the same day. Never happened before.

What happened to those schools? Watch this short video.

Did he think that schools are like hot dog stands or shoe stores? If you don’t make a profit, you close it and move on? Did he forget that he was cutting the arteries away from communities, families, and children?

Tina Trujillo at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Colorado’s Michelle Renée suggest that government agencies and policy-makers, including the U.S. Department of Education, would be wise to look at educational research as they guide school turnarounds.

Evidence shows that top-down, punitive efforts are ineffective and counterproductive. Instead, a collaborative, community-driven approach—combined with significant, sustained financial investment and a focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning—has been proven to be the better path to school improvement.

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Closing schools, Corporate Reform

Tom Ultican: The Destroy-Public -Education Movement Targets Oakland

By dianeravitch
May 13, 2018 //
20

Tom Ultican has been writing a series of posts about the “Destroy Public Education Movement,” a phrase coined by Professor Jim Scheurich of Indiana University, who has been documenting this vile effort to privatize public schools.

In this post, Ultican writes about current events in Oakland, where the school board seems to be cooperating with the demise of the district.

He writes:

“A “Systems of Schools” plan has been introduced by the destroy public education (DPE) forces in Oakland, California. The plan basically posits that with 30 percent of students in charter schools, the system has become inefficient. Therefore, the school board needs to review resources and close schools in areas with too many seats and overlapping programs.

“However, since Oakland’s school board has no authority over charter schools it is only public schools that can be closed or downsized unless charter schools voluntarily cooperate.”

Read on.

Categories California, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Education Industry, Oakland, Privatization

Kymberly Walcott: Stop Closing Our Schools!

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2018 //
22

This video features Kymberly Walcott, now a senior in Hunter College in New York City. She describes the terrible injustice of closing her high school, Jamaica High School.

The idea that closing schools is a “remedy” was one of the cruelest aspects of the failed No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

Countless schools were closed because they had low scores. Typically, these schools were located in black and brown communities, and the students enrolled in them were, of course, nonwhite. Children were dispersed, communities were disrupted, teachers and principals and support staff lost their jobs and had to fend for themselves.

Jamaica High School was once one of the greatest high schools in the nation and in New York City. As its population changed from white to predominantly nonwhite, its reputation changed. It enrolled needier students. But instead of providing the school with the supports it needed, school officials in the Bloomberg era declared that it was a “failing school.” That immediately sent enrollments into a tail spin, as parents withdrew their children. The label became a self-fulfilling prophecy, dooming the school. The Department of Education closed it and replaced it with small high schools, none of which could match the broad curriculum, the programs for ELLs, or other offerings at the original school.

This article in the New Yorker in 2015 captures a sense of what was lost.

There is no evidence that closing schools produces better outcomes for students. It predictably produces disruption and chaos, which are not good for children and teens.

If there are any researchers out there who have a source for the number of schools closed by NCLB and RTTT, please let me know. I have searched for the number without success.

Categories Closing schools, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Network for Public Education, New York City, Race, Race to the Top

School Closings Hurt Children and Communities

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2018 //
8

 

No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top encouraged school Closings as a “reform,” but this turns out to be a destructive approach that hurts children and communities. 

Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked board in Chicago closed nearly 50 public schools in one day in 2013. That’s a record. One for the history books. That’s the kind of thinking that views people and children as objects, unimportant lives, easily discarded.

The National Education Policy Center describes the strategy of closing schools as “high risk, low gain.”

BOULDER, CO (May 18, 2017) – Federal and state school accountability policies have used standardized test results to shine a spotlight on low-performing schools. A remedy offered to “turn around” low-performance in school districts is the option to close the doors of the low-performing schools and send students elsewhere.

School Closure as a Strategy to Remedy Low Performance, authored by Gail L. Sunderman of the University of Maryland, and Erin Coghlan and Rick Mintrop of the University of California, Berkeley, investigates whether closing schools and transferring students for the purpose of remedying low performance is an effective option for educational decision makers to pursue.

Closing schools in response to low student performance is based on the premise that by closing low-performing schools and sending students to better-performing ones, student achievement will improve. The higher-performing schools, it is reasoned, will give transfer students access to higher-quality peer and teacher networks, which in turn will have a beneficial effect on academic outcomes. Moreover, it is argued that the threat of closure may motivate low-performing schools (and their districts) to improve.

To investigate this logic of closing schools to improve student performance, the authors drew on relevant peer-reviewed research and well-designed policy reports to answer four questions:

  1. How often do school closings occur and for what reasons?
  2. What is the impact on students of closing schools for reasons of performance?
  3. What is the impact of closing schools on the public school system in which closure has taken place?
  4. What is the impact of school closures on students of various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and on local communities and neighborhoods?

Based on their analysis of the relevant available evidence the authors offer the following recommendations:

  • Even though school closures have dramatically increased, jurisdictions largely shun the option of “closure and transfer” in the context of the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. Policy and district actors should treat the infrequency of this turnaround option as a caution.
  • School closures have at best weak and decidedly mixed benefits; at worst they have detrimental repercussions for students if districts do not ensure that seats at higher- performing schools are available for transfer students. In districts where such assignments are in short or uncertain supply, “closure and transfer” is a decidedly undesirable option.
  • School closures seem to be a challenge for transferred students in non-academic terms for at least one or two years. While school closures are not advisable for a school of any grade span, they are especially inadvisable for middle school students because of the shorter grade span of such schools.
  • The available evidence on the effects of school closings for their local system offers a cautionary note. There are costs associated with closing buildings and transferring teachers and students, which reduce the available resources for the remaining schools. Moreover, in cases where teachers are not rehired under closure-and-restart models, there may be broader implications for the diversity of the teaching workforce. Closing schools to consolidate district finances or because of declining enrollments may be inevitable at times, but closing solely for performance has unanticipated consequences that local and state decision makers should be aware of.
  • School closures are often accompanied by political conflict. Closures tend to differentially affect low-income communities and communities of color that are politically disempowered, and closures may work against the demand of local actors for more investment in their local institutions.

In conclusion, school closure as a strategy for remedying student achievement in low-performing schools is at best a high-risk/low-gain strategy that fails to hold promise with respect to either increasing student achievement or promoting the non-cognitive well-being of students. The strategy invites political conflict and incurs hidden costs for both districts and local communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color that are differentially affected by school closings. It stands to reason that in many, if not most, instances, students, parents, local communities, district and state policymakers may be better off investing in persistently low-performing schools rather than closing them.

Find School Closure as a Strategy to Remedy Low Performance, by Gail L. Sunderman, Erin Coghlan and Rick Mintrop, at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/closures

 

 

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, National Education Policy Center
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