School closures

The largest school closure to date hurt learning among affected students, finds a new report by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

In 2013, Chicago closed 49 elementary schools and one high school program located in an elementary school, displacing nearly 12,000 students. Those from closed schools performed worse on math and reading tests than expected based on their previous achievement. While these test scores rebounded in reading in the second year, students from closed schools remained about two months behind in math four years after the school closures...