Students work together at DSST: Montview, part of the DSST Public Schools charter network that grew rapidly in Denver during the education reform era. (Evan Semón for Chalkbeat)
The architects of Denver Public Schools’ former reform efforts are lauding a new study that validates a strategy that largely has been abandoned both in Denver and nationwide: closing low-performing schools and opening new ones that might serve students better.
The analysis from University of Colorado Denver researchers finds that most students who left closed Denver schools and attended new ones saw their test scores go up, with greater gains for English learners and students with disabilities.
Student achievement also went up districtwide, which study authors attribute to years-long efforts to give school leaders more autonomy, hold them accountable for results, and make it easier for families to choose among a range of schools.
“Too many school reforms in this country last for a year, and then the next year everybody changes their position based on what happened the year before,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Denver’s superintendent during the start of the reform era, said during a panel discussion Friday. “Denver, unlike many other places, had a commitment to a complicated and nuanced approach. I hope that people will have the chance to rediscover the work because of this research.”
Researchers who reviewed the study at Chalkbeat’s request said it was generally well-designed and makes a strong case that Denver’s approach contributed to improvements in student test scores. However, they cautioned that its boldest claim — that students experienced as much as three school years worth of additional learning — may be overstated.
The study adds to an extensive body of research on school closures, some of which has found mixed or negative effects. After years of bipartisan support from policymakers and others, test-based school accountability has mostly fallen out of favor in large urban districts.
In addition to the political backlash this approach frequently sparked, improvements stemming from it proved hard to sustain over time. But different approaches to school improvement have been slow to emerge as schools grapple with the pandemic’s effects on student outcomes.
Now, many urban districts — including Denver — are facing the prospect of school closures due at least in part to a different factor: declining enrollment. As it prepares to pick which schools will close next year, the Denver school board initially rejected the idea of considering academic performance but now says it can be a factor, just not the sole one.
Read the full story on Chalkbeat.
