Sunday, January 10, 2016

Bloomberg’s early school closures benefitted future students

Good to see the results of this study:

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's policy of closing bottom-ranked high schools did not harm students at the shuttered schools and benefitted later students who were forced to enroll elsewhere, according to a new study.

The study, which looked at 29 high schools whose closures began during the first half of Bloomberg's tenure, is sure to rekindle debates over one of the most divisive education policies in the city's history. It found that students who would have attended the shuttered schools landed at higher-performing schools — in many cases, new small schools that the city created in droves during that 2002 to 2008 period — and ended up with better academic outcomes.

"They were prevented from attending the low-performing schools that were their most likely choice," said the report's author, James Kemple, executive director of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools, a nonpartisan center based at New York University. He said the evidence suggests school closure "may be beneficial, but only if you think about it in the context of providing better options for students and opening up a choice process."


Bloomberg's early school closures benefitted future students, new study finds

Published: November 19, 2015 - 5:00 a.m. EST 

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