• Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas: The Turnaround Dilemma: Convert or Close Down?

  • The report out last week on the results of a study looking at Chicago’s efforts to close down failing schools got me thinking. In its study, the Consortium on Chicago School Research examined the impact on students of shutting down 18 chronically low-performing elementary schools in the Windy City.

  • The bottom line, according to this study, was that the students who were displaced by the closings just ended up at other low-performing schools in the district. Their achievement, as measured by test scores, did not improve all that much, compared to that of students who continued to attend similarly low-performing schools.

  • Districts won’t be required to close down schools to qualify for the new federal turnaround grants, but it’s clear from the draft guidelines issued so far that the federal government really likes that approach.

  • school superintendents faced with failing schools have a difficult choice to make: Transform the schools or shut them down and start from scratch?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.