Urban districts struggle to improve academics after school closings, research says

Standing in front of a row of pastors at Cane Creek Baptist Church on Thursday night, backed by the occasional blare of an organ, Shelby County Schools superintendent Dorsey E. Hopson laid out his hopes and plans for students affected by the district’s plans to close as many as 13 schools in Memphis.

“We can improve student achievement in these schools,” he told a small crowd in the pews, many of them dressed in shirts protesting the planned closure of Westhaven Elementary School. “Let’s put the students together, give them the support that they need, both from a personnel standpoint and from a technology standpoint, and get serious about student achievement. We’ve failed these students for too long.”