A new study on school closures in Chicago reports an unsurprising but important finding: the quality of the school a student attends after he/she is displaced by a closure is extremely important. Students who enroll in another low-performing school don't do so well, but those who transfer to a high-performing school have better achievement gains.
This just underscores that closures can't fix troubled school systems alone. Closures must be part of a larger strategy that includes new school starts and the replication and expansion of successful programs.
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