Race Is a Big Factor in School Closures. What You Need to Know

This Education Week piece discusses research that found that majority-Black schools are about three times as likely to close as schools with smaller enrollments of Black students, even when accounting for common reasons behind closures. The authors synthesize studies from Stanford and Tulane that produced similar results: when examining the processes and impacts of school closure, both studies find that closure often exacerbates educational inequity for Black and brown students. Researchers attribute the effect of race on school closure to historical inequities including residential segregation and divestment from schools serving students of color. Doug Harris of Tulane University calls for further research to provide root cause analyses, noting that district leaders often close schools with dilapidated facilities without questioning the patterns of enrollment, investment, siting that cause schools in some neighborhoods to fall into disrepair more than others.