A Think Twice Review of:

Lights Off: Practice and Impact of Closing Low-Performing Schools

Think Twice - Oct 24, 2017

Publisher/Think Tank - Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO)

Author(s) - Chunping Han, Margaret E. Raymond, James L. Woodworth, Yohannes Negassi, W. Payton Richardson, and Will Snow

A report from the Hoover Institution’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO) offered a comprehensive analysis of the impact of closing low-performing schools. The report included data from 1,522 low-performing schools from 26 states. An academic review finds the report to be a valuable addition to the research on school closures.

Reviewer(s) - Matthew Gaertner, SRI International, and Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado Boulder.

An academic review finds the report to be a valuable addition to the research on school closures. The reviewers suggest that the report could have better highlighted the disproportionality of the school closures and the inadequate number of higher quality receiving schools. The reviewers were also concerned about the statistical modeling, which threatens the validity of subgroup analyses (specifically as it relates to charter school comparisons). In their conclusion, the reviewers say that they would have liked to see the report acknowledge the moral dimensions of school closures: “Decisions about school closure and broader questions of reform raise normative political questions about participation and rights – including questions about the voices of students and their parents.”