Episode 51: Why are Schools Closing?

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Welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. 1 Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing school closures. School closures is a widely researched topic that continues to get public attention. It affects students, families, and communities and is based on a number of factors. I explore these factors with specific examples on this episode. Let's get started. In 2019 through 2020, there were 827 regular school closures and 235 charter school closures. Let's put this in context. There are 128,901 public and private K12 schools in the U.S. according to the 20192020 data from the National center for Education Statistics, or NCES. There were 88,909 pre, kindergarten, elementary and middle schools, as well as 27,155 secondary and high schools. Charter schools make up only a small portion of all schools. There are 90,922 traditional public schools and 7,547 public charter schools. Additionally, there are 30,492 private schools and all of these data come from the nces statistics. From 2019 through 2020, the average public school enrollment is 529 students. According to the 2019 data, which is the most current data, there are more students in suburban schools, 654 students versus inner city schools at 588 students. Rural schools had typical enrollments of 368 students. There are over 49.7 million students in America's public schools and roughly 6.8% of all public school students. Over 3.4 million of them attend charter schools, so school closures represent less than 1% of all schools in America. This 1% rate of school closures still impacts the lives of real students and real families. Closing poorly performing schools or converting them into charter schools can improve student performance, but only under specific conditions. The most important factor when considering school closure and takeover policies, according to researchers at Tulane University, was whether students ended up in better performing schools after their original school was closed. In Louisiana, for example, the state has a special state run district called the Recovery School District that is taking over persistently struggling schools in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and converted them into charter schools. One of the fallouts from Hurricane Katrina was that the state swept the majority of New Orleans locally run schools into the Recovery School District that caused over 90% of New Orleans students to attend a charter school. Closing the low performing schools in New Orleans seems to have had an overall positive effect on student achievement, but those findings didn't hold true in Baton Rouge where students often ended up in lower performing schools. Additionally, the researchers found that school closures were more beneficial for elementary school students than high school students. School closures is an issue that is high profile, high impact, and often contentious. The school closure process is often criticized by school and community stakeholders. There's very little research concerned with the policy implications of school closures and the communities surrounding those schools. The few studies that have examined the correlation of school closures and community impacts have established that there are potential social consequences to the decision to close schools. School closures tended to be followed by socialization and social control at the local level, where parents and other community members perceived local schools as belonging to them. In other words, they saw communities as the real owners of the school. The sense of community is more noticeably impacted on students who go to rural schools. When a rural school is closed, students will then attend a larger school and the impacts tend to be that they are alienated, that crime is more prevalent, and the student dropout rate is higher. Further, school closures resulted in higher social costs by reducing parental involvement in their children's education, increasing the flight to private schools. Schools not only educate children, they're also an important part of the community's fabric. They are the key to building a community's social capital. Schools also have a symbolic value as the heart of the community. The presence of the school suggests future the loss of community schools symbolizes a community in decline. The closure of the school can be devastating for students, families and communities, particularly inner city communities that quite often are transitional in nature and delicately balanced and social and economic terms. Many times communities respond to closures with shock, disbelief, then anger, resentment, and resistance that takes various forms, including legal challenges. Quite often community residents feel powerless with school closure processes. When inner city schools close, those communities become less attractive to families that have school age children. The residents can lose their sense of identity and confidence. School closure decisions are predominantly made by school boards which establish the criteria for closure in accordance with school accommodation policies. There seems to be a deep and divisive institutional community dichotomy when it comes to implementing a school closure policy. As a result, the social purposes of local school as defined by community are in constant tension with the school board's financial pressures. These financial demands seem to be the prevailing and popular rationale for school closures. Surprisingly, student test scores failed to significantly predict school closures. These closure decisions are not fully participatory with all school stakeholders and they are rarely collaborative in nature or are partnership based. When a school closure decision has been made, reversing that decision seems to be an insurmountable task. This suggests that school board policies and the review process are at odds with community expectations of accountability, inclusiveness, fairness and transparency in public sector agencies. The reality is that not every school will operate in perpetuity and that some schools have to be closed. Yet a reasonable, responsive, inclusive and fair decision making system could make a very difficult and conflict ridden experience less fraught for school boards. It would at least help all stakeholders better understand the decision making context as far as what can and can't be done in order to minimize confusion and ill feeling and to eventually come to terms with the school closure. Charter schools are much more likely to close than public schools. Charter schools tend to enroll a higher proportion of black students than do traditional public schools. Therefore, a high incidence of closure can lead to educational instability with students moving in and out of charter schools as well as traditional schools. These findings from a study by Paino, Boylan and others in August of 2017 reveal that as the proportion of black students in charter schools increases, so too does its likelihood of closing. It may therefore be misleading to promote charter schools as avenues of racial equity. The fact that the charter schools serves greater proportions of black students may in fact be contributing to racial inequalities in education. When public schools are closed, low income, African American and Latino students are disproportionately affected by these traditional public school closures in fact, schools serving minority students are more likely to experience closure. The association between race and closure may be due to enrollment and achievement deficiencies as well as funding constraints. Traditional public school closures often occur in cities with a majority of black students. For example, in Chicago, although African American students make up approximately 40% of the students in the district, they comprise 88% of students affected by school turnaround and closure policies. Recent waves of school closures have brought issues of racial inequity to to the surface in many cities like Philadelphia. In Philadelphia in 2013, it closed nearly 10% of its schools. This ultimately led to the filing of a civil rights lawsuit with the federal Department of Education alleging that such closure tactics amounted to racial discrimination with black students disproportionately affected. That lawsuit was followed by similar lawsuits in Newark, New Jersey, Chicago, and New Orleans. Charter schools are supposed to provide accountability of performance. However, this performance accountability can lead to the closure of a charter school. Charter schools make closures for many reasons, including low academic scores, mismanagement, financial difficulties, and inadequate facilities. The most common reason for charter school closures is financial. Academics may play a role, but the evidence is inconclusive. Once those school's charter expires, the school must be reauthorized to continue operating. Have you had a chance to check.

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Charter schools operate under a market driven logic that suggests that parents will choose high performing charter schools over low performing schools and that due to lack of enrollment or poor performance, these low performing schools will be closed. Closure of failing charter schools indicates that the schools are being held to higher standards. Looking at charter school closures from an equity perspective, one consequence of closure strategy aimed at accountability is that students of color are more likely to experience more the effects of school closure. Closure as accountability and charter school policy may undermine the goal of increasing educational opportunities. School transitions can be disadvantageous for students. Transitions in schooling tend to reduce social capital, school community academic achievement, and expectations and aspirations. These transitions may be especially harmful for students who are enrolled in charter schools because the students who enter charters from district schools have some of the lowest levels of academic achievement. A forced move due to a school closure may set the students back even further, although the academic declines may not persist long term. In the end, charter school closures indicate a policy that on the surface may seem race neutral or even positive, yet may have long term consequences that disadvantage minority students. School system leaders tend to rely on the dominant frame that presents closures as inevitable, data driven and politically neutral phenomenon in an educational landscape defined by shrinking budgets, demographic changes, and increased school choice. Research is typically focused on how communities often entail counter narratives that seek to interrupt these official accounts of school closures, in particular communities. In Washington, D.C. a district that shuttered 23 schools in 2008 and an additional 15 schools in 2012, pushed back on the notion that closures were inevitable, questioned the measures guiding the process, and attempted to expose hidden agendas and interests behind them. Over half the schools on the closure list were located in areas of the district that had the highest concentration of black students, the highest proportion of students receiving free or reduced lunch, large number of closed schools, and higher proportions of students in charter schools. Records indicate that in the schools that were closed in 2012, 93% of the students were black and only 0.2% or 6 students were white. A local community organizing group called Empower DC Filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of parents and unsuccessfully sought an injunction to halt the closures. When schools are closed, they highlight a host of contextual factors related to public education, such as changing demographics, racial inequality, and urban redevelopment. As a result, school closures appeal to a wide variety of stakeholders with very different interests. School closures reflect the crises that have come to define urban education, namely those related to educational funding, racial injustice, and school choice. These factors have led to conflict and contentious climates that have eroded trust as well as exacerbated tensions between communities and school district leadership. Community based partnerships, such as with local organizations and churches, play an important role in supporting education mobilization by providing expertise in areas like research or organizing. One of the most extreme steps that education leaders can take to improve school quality is to close the school entirely. The harms and disruptions that these closures can create for families has already been mentioned. However, these harms may be particularly severe if displaced families don't receive adequate support in transitioning to new schools. Recalling that New Orleans has a majority charter school system, the city has seen regular changes to its school landscape because of the multiple school closures but mergers, takeovers, and openings. In response to these events, school leaders have changed their approach to school closure by providing additional supports for families when schools close. One such support is the city's enrollment system, called one app, which began to give students from closing schools high priority when they applied for schools for the following year. The second support that was provided was from the nonprofit organization Ed Navigator. This organization provided support by way of recommending specific schools to families recommendations that came from an organization unaffiliated with the district. The findings from this Brookings institute study in 2022 were revealed that one families that received priority and support requested schools rated highly by the state more often than families in comparison groups. Two Families that worked with ED Navigator requested schools the organization recommended and received a seat in those schools through the one App placement process more often than families in comparison groups. Three Families that received priority and support were more likely to receive a placement in high rated schools and families in comparison groups, but many students in all groups were again placed in low rated schools. Four Families that received support and priority were more likely to complete the choice process during the one app's first placement round where there were more seats available at high rated schools and remained in the same school for at least one year after enrolling compared to families in comparison groups and five Test scores for students from supported and prioritized families increased slightly after leaving their closing schools. However, they remained far below state averages. If your child's school is on a school district list for potential closure, you can always get involved in local organizing or activist groups in order to provide a lived experience perspective of the school's impact on your community. There are most certainly a number of groups in your local area from whom you can get involved or request support. Here are this episode's takeaways. School closures account for 1% of the 116,064 K12 public schools in this country. That 1% basically equates to to roughly 614,000 students, so the impact to those students, their families and communities is very real. Charter schools make up only a small portion of all schools, yet there are charter school closures as well. Closing poorly performing schools or converting them into charter schools can improve student performance, but only under specific conditions. The most important factor when considering school closure and takeover policies was whether students ended up in better performing schools after their original school was closed. School closure decisions are predominantly made by school boards which establish criteria for closure in accordance with school accommodation policies. There seems to be a deep and divisive institutional community dichotomy when it comes to implementing a school closure policy. As a result, the social purposes of a local school, as defined by community, are in constant tension with the school board's financial pressures. These financial demands seem to be the prevailing and popular rationale for school closures. Surprisingly, student test scores failed to significantly predict school closures. Charter schools are much more likely to close than public schools. Charter schools tend to enroll a higher proportion of black students than do traditional public schools. Therefore, a high incidence of closure can lead to educational instability with students moving in and out of charter schools as well as traditional schools. As the proportion of black students in the charter school increases, so too does its likelihood of closing. It may therefore be misleading to promote charter schools as avenues of racial equity. The fact that charter schools serve greater proportions of black students may mean that they are contributing to racial inequalities in education. When public schools are closed, low income, African American and Latino students are disproportionately affected by these traditional public school closures. In fact, schools serving minority students are more likely to experience closure. School closure is an issue that is high profile, high impact, and often contentious. Yet everyone who participates in public education is responsible for its outcome. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you're listening to. This also, I'd love to hear from you. So please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment on apple stitcher or podchaser. You can also rate my podcast@ratethispodcast.com if you like this podcast. The best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Additionally, you can connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay stay tuned on the next episode. I'll be discussing class size. Until next time. Aim to learn something new every day. Love my show. Consider being a regular subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. Just go to there's no contractual obligation. You can cancel at any time. If you choose to subscribe, I'll give you a special shout out thanking you in an upcoming episode. Remember, that's forward slash podcast support to subscribe.