In Print: Broad Foundations Handbook to Closing Schools

[ForWhoForWhat?]

Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Superintendents Academy has published a step-by step guide on how to close your public schools in order to "open them to choice."

83 pages in print. Highlights Include:

-A suggested Timeline: You have a lot of work to do the first year before you let the community know you plan to close their school (seen throughout)

-What verbiage to use to sell the public on school closure(p. 23)

-How to Schmooze the school board and other identified stakeholders to accept your closure plan (p22-23)What, you thought the community would initiate their own school closures?

-Hiring consultants (throughout many pages)We have have to hire more and more 6 figure consultants in order to save the tax payers money we're never giving back. If you're a superintendent, i'm sure your friends are more than qualified to fill these consulting roles.

-How to keep closures secret until the last possible minute (p. 26-27) Minimizes community anger.

-How to avoid answering specific questions from the public about closure (p 25) (families aren’t to be notified of any type of specifics until 2 years into the plan, teachers aren’t notified until several months after that)

-A handy formula to reassign kids to justify closure (p.31)

-How to making the public feel like they are a part of the decision making process (even though they aren’t) (27)*

-How to answer the public’s questions without answering the public’s questions (26) Don't mention specific schools, mention "the process".

Plans for the now empty buildings (p36)

“A difficult and often divisive task, closing schools is something that every school district eventually faces. Only by facing school closures with an empowered leader, ongoing engagement with the community, perseverance through to implementation, a reasonable timeline, and a sharp, unwavering eye on better educational opportunities for students will districts achieve the most favorable results from school closures. By learning from the successes and failures of efforts highlighted in this guide, district operators will be better positioned to run smoother, less rancorous, and ultimately more successful closure efforts. (p 40)



*in the last several months there’s been a lot of blow-back among the community on this topic in several cities, sparking in some cases, Civil rights lawsuits. Broad and co. may want to rewrite this chapter.

[ForWhoForWhat?]

Even if the most ardent privateers have to admit, this is at best, a tad arrogant to put in print if it isn’t down right sleazy.

there's very little in the document that mentions any real, legitimate justifications for closing schools. No proven results, no research. Just tell the people, "it's better for them" without offering any real say, choice, or alternatives.

[BigFin]

Some school closures going on around Fayette County near me are really upsetting the community. Personally, I think the parents shouldn't be too emotionally invested in the actual physical school itself. Use that emotion and energy and channel it into care for your child's education, at whatever school he/she may end up at.

I think it's also possible that a lot of these parents went to these schools, and it may be a bit selfish on their part to go out of their way to protest the closure just to satisfy their nostalgia.

school buildings =/= education

[ForWhoForWhat?]

For years many school buildings have been gathering places for the communities. they aren't just buildings. Bussing to new, perhaps unfamiliar neighborhoods is an issue for many as well. I know that's happened to some Philly parents: the reassignment required their kid to cross over seedier parts of town.

some of the resent research has found that school closure isn't the boon it's preached to be: http://www.researchforaction.org/wp-...-2013.pdf#8221

-not seeing the savings as projected (DC projected costs to be $10 mil, ended up being $40!!)
-increased costs in transportation
-difficulty selling/re-purposing/maintaining buildings
-students most likely to be reassigned in school closure also happen to be students most likely to be [negatively] mobile. They are also disproportionately, African American, Hispanic, and special needs and above all else are poor.*
-In studies of three cities, large-scale closings were seldom found to improve student performance, and in some instances showed long-term negative effects
-The only time closure was seen as a positive in academic performance was when a student was moved to a higher performing school--and even that was a short term negative, due to adjustment. But such a small number of students actually get moved to better schools, it minimizes the proposed positive affects.


*So if we've been telling you we have trouble overcoming the unique hurdles poor kids face because they're poor, we're bad teachers and deserve to be fired, but districts on the other hand can close schools because...the kids are poor--and it's not an excuse and is encouraged? Huh?

[ForWhoForWhat?]

Historic Use of the Term “Failing School”

Politics is about many things—power, money, authority, values, ideas…

It also is about language. In current school reform debates, the phrase “failing school” and its plural form “failing schools” are used very often.

Below are two Google Ngram charts that depict the rise in the frequency of this term in books appearance between 1900 and 2008. The results are rather eye-popping—use of the terms took off after 1990.

Yet graduation rates are at their highest point in our history, there's been a gradual increase in our "all important" test scores, there's higher standards than ever before, college attendance is at an all time high...all of those things steadily increased during the time "failing school[s]" was on the rise....

[Raid]

Some school closures going on around Fayette County near me are really upsetting the community. Personally, I think the parents shouldn't be too emotionally invested in the actual physical school itself. Use that emotion and energy and channel it into care for your child's education, at whatever school he/she may end up at.

I think it's also possible that a lot of these parents went to these schools, and it may be a bit selfish on their part to go out of their way to protest the closure just to satisfy their nostalgia.

school buildings =/= education

Damn, that's as true as true can be. Teachers are pissed because they may be laid off or relocated (oh my - less students, less teahers ....the math hurts my brain). Parents are pissed because.... they...um.... like underutilized schools so they and their neighbors can pay for the unused overhead.