This new study, Are Bad Schools Immortal? The Scarcity of Turnarounds and Shutdowns in Both Charter and District Sectors from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute finds that low-performing public schools?both charter and traditional district schools?are stubbornly resistant to significant change. After identifying more than 2,000 low-performing charter and district schools across ten states, analyst David Stuit tracked them from 2003-04 through 2008-09 to determine how many were turned around, shut down, or remained low-performing. Results were generally dismal. Seventy-two percent of the original low-performing charters remained in operation?and remained low-performing?five years later. So did 80 percent of district schools. Read on to learn more?including results from the ten states.
