Shutting down poorly-performing urban charter and traditional schools in Ohio helped students, according to a new study published by the Fordham Institute.
School closures are often denounced as hurting public education. The results from Ohio give reason to question this conventional wisdom. The disproportionately black, economically disadvantaged, or low-achieving students affected may actually be fortunate their low-performing schools closed.
Three years after a traditional public school closure, its former students learned the equivalent of 49 extra days in reading and 34 extra days in math in their new schools. Students who had been in failing charter schools learned the equivalent of 46 extra days in math with no significant change in reading.
The study was authored by Deven Carlson, an assistant professor in political science at the University of Oklahoma, and Stéphane Lavertu, an assistant professor at Ohio State University. Carlson and Lavertu examined eight different urban school districts in Ohio to reach their conclusions. The eight districts have lost more than 50,000 students since 2006 and have been forced to close almost 200 schools. Student achievement of displaced students, before and after school closure, is compared with students who were not displaced.
“Schools are integral parts of communities; they’re built into families’ routines and expectations, and closing them inevitably causes pain and sadness, even when it’s what’s best for students,” Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli and Ohio research director Aaron Churchill wrote in the study’s foreword. “That doesn’t mean it’s easy to put bad schools out of their misery. … Though fraught with controversy and political peril, shuttering bad schools might just be a saving grace for students who need the best education they can get.”
Almost three-quarters of students in traditional public and charter schools that closed were black students. Ninety-two percent of students in traditional public schools that closed were economically disadvantaged. Students in closing public schools scored in the 20th percentile of the Ohio math and reading tests before being displaced.
While some argue there are at least short-term negative effects from school closures, the study still found small, positive impacts even in the first year after closure.
Almost six out of 10 students who attended a traditional public school that closed ended up in a higher-quality school. The same was true for seven out of 10 students who had attended a shuttered charter school.
The study did not examine whether school closures negatively affect students in the schools that receive displaced students.
