In their study "The effects of closing urban schools on students’ academic and behavioral outcomes: Evidence from Philadelphia," University of Pennsylvania professors Matthew P. Steinberg and John M. MacDonald found that academic achievement of displaced students showed minimal improvement in some circumstances, but not widely. Receiving schools who received higher percentages of displaced students experienced negative effects to achievement. They found that displaced students had more absences and received more suspensions after their original schools closed. The farther the students had to travel to reach their new schools, the more they struggled in these areas.
Steinberg, Matthew P., and John M. MacDonald. “The effects of closing urban schools on students’ academic and behavioral outcomes: Evidence from Philadelphia.” Economics of Education Review, vol. 69, Apr. 2019, pp. 25–60, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.12.005.
Wolfman-Arent, Avi. “What Happened When Philly Closed 30 Schools? New Study Offers Answers.” WHYY, WHYY, 19 Mar. 2019, whyy.org/articles/what-happened-when-philly-closed-30-schools-new-study-offers-answers/
When students have to travel farther to school, even by half a mile, it can lower participation in enrichment programs and make it harder for parents to get involved.
Makarewicz, Carrie. “Balancing education opportunities with sustainable travel and development.” Transportation, Land Use, and Environmental Planning, 2020, pp. 299–331, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-815167-9.00016-5.
Stanford University reports "socioeconomic inequality is a reliable indicator of academic achievement gaps"
According to the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, socioeconomic inequality is a reliable indicator of academic achievement gaps. According to them, we gain a better idea of how much students learn during their school years by looking at learning rates instead of average test scores.
Matheny, K. T., Thompson, M. E., Townley Flores, C., & Reardon, S. F. (2021). Racial socioeconomic inequality predicts growing racial academic inequality [Data Discovery by The Educational Opportunity Project]. https://edopportunity.org/discoveries/racial-inequality-predicts-academic-inequality/
A 2017 brief for the National Education Policy Center found that the academic achievement that occurs after school closures, be it positive or negative, were relatively minimal and often short-lived. They conclude that school closures as a strategy for remedying student achievement in low-performing schools is a high-risk/low-gain strategy that fails to hold promise with respect to either student achievement or non-cognitive well-being.
Sunderman, G.L., Coghlan, E., & Mintrop, R. (2017). School Closure as a Strategy to Remedy Low Performance. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc. colorado.edu/publication/closures
Test scores are not comprehensive measures of school quality. Some alternative measures include schools’ curricula and relationships with the communities in which they reside, the effectiveness of the academic, professional, mental, and emotional support for students and staff alike, their commitments and actions to being and creating racially, culturally, socially, and professionally inclusive spaces.
Ferlazzo, Larry, et al. “How Can You Measure a School’s Success? It’s Not Just through Test Scores (Opinion).” Education Week, Education Week, 1 Mar. 2022, www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-how-can-you-measure-a-schools-success-its-not-just-through-test-scores/2022/03