Closing Failing New York City High Schools Helped Students, Study Finds

It only makes sense. Of course the current Mayor has changed the policy:

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg closed dozens of large failing high schools, the move ignited angry protests from critics claiming he was destroying important neighborhood institutions.

But a study released Thursday found these closures benefited the eighth-graders who likely would have gone to the targeted high schools if they had remained open and didn’t hurt the students attending the schools while they were being phased out.

The study from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools at New York University aims to add data to the highly charged issue of how to address the lowest-performing schools.
...
Shutting schools was one of the most contentious parts of Mr. Bloomberg’s overhaul efforts and at times sparked litigation. The study looked at 29 low-performing high schools designated for closure between 2002 and 2008. These schools stopped admitting new ninth-graders, and students already attending them could stay until graduation or transfer out.

The study found that the phaseout process didn’t hurt the attendance or graduation rates of the roughly 9,600 freshmen at these high schools when their closures were announced. That finding countered many critics’ expectations that student learning would suffer during phase-outs as some teachers left and enrichment programs dwindled.

Further, the study found the closures had a positive academic effect on eighth-graders who would likely have attended the targeted high schools and were forced go elsewhere. Students in that group enrolled in higher-performing schools and hit a 56% graduation rate, compared with the 40% rate projected at the closed schools they would likely have attended.

Closing Failing New York City High Schools Helped Students, Study Finds

 

Where is the discussion on closing down failing colleges?

 

It's worth having.

Better idea than, "everyone should go to college," which enriches a lot of worthless colleges.

 

Close down the online charter schools while we're at it. Has anyone met an online charter school student?

 

Trump University