Declining Enrollment is Leading to School Closures. How Can Districts Limit the Harm to Their Most Vulnerable Students?

This blog post from Bellwether discusses research indicating that school closures often exacerbate educational inequity. Closures disproportionately impact neighborhoods experiencing rapid gentrification and therefore disproportionately impact students of color. To address these potential harms, the authors argue that school district leaders must center equity when considering school closures. The authors offer several recommendations to school and district leaders, including:

• Engage community in closure decision-making via an inclusive process
• Work to improve academic quality for students enrolled in closing schools by creating pathways to higher performing options
• Collaborate with other city leaders to develop a long-term plan for contributing factors to racial disproportionality such as housing affordability and population decline