Key Takeaway: Fordham report relies on arbitrary assumptions and calculations, and empirical research fails to support its inflated claims of school-closure benefits.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI (January 28, 2025)
- A recent Fordham Institute report argues that post-pandemic enrollment declines will inevitably force districts to make the controversial decision to close some schools. Embracing this possibility, it provides dual criteria of substantial declines in enrollment and chronic low performance as indicators of which schools should be closed first, naming nearly 500 specific schools that meet the criteria.
In her review of Underachieving and Underenrolled: Chronically Low-Performing Schools in the Post-Pandemic Era, Sally A. Nuamah of Northwestern University finds little evidence to support the report's contention that closing these schools will meaningfully reduce budget deficits and improve education outcomes.
The report cherry-picks studies about school closures, discussing very little of the peer-reviewed research evidence concerning the negative impacts of school closings on affordable housing, school accessibility, racial equity, attendance, and socio-emotional health.
The report also does not include what researchers would expect in terms of a "methods" section that explains and supports the approach used. Instead, it presents some descriptive data and analyses, the import of which depends on readers embracing the authors' assumptions and ignoring standard empirical procedures.
Finally, the report fails to account for the broader civic and social purposes of schools, including their role in providing children with food, shelter, childcare, civic learning, health care, and social services. Further, Professor Nuamah contends, it ignores the potential harmful effects of closing schools in communities that have already experienced chronic disinvestment.
Thus, she concludes, policymakers would do best to ignore this report, including its list of candidates for school closure. It offers an unfounded and oversimplified solution to highly complex challenges.
Find the review, by Sally A. Nuamah, at:
https://www.greatlakescenter.org
Find Underachieving and Underenrolled: Chronically Low-Performing Schools in the Post-Pandemic Era,written by Sofoklis Goulas and published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, at: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/underachieving-and-underenrolled-chronically-low-performing-schools-post-pandemic
NEPC Reviews (https://nepc.colorado.edu/reviews) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: https://www.greatlakescenter.org
