An Open-and-Shut Case: Comparing Community Responses to School Closures and Their Disparate Outcomes in Washington, D.C.

• In Event: 16.059 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.059-6 - Division L Section 7 Poster Session

Abstract

School closures in urban school districts have become a controversial fixture of the contemporary reform agenda. In Washington, D.C. alone, over 40 schools have been closed over the last decade. Diverse communities have mobilized to keep their schools open, but only the most privileged groups have been successful. Using a strategic qualitative case study approach including observations and interviews with parents, activists, and public officials, I compare how diverse school communities in a gentrifying city confront closure decisions and the disparate outcomes of their efforts. The study finds that closure decisions were impacted by a dynamic interplay between both the makeup of each school community, and their respective abilities to drum up support for their schools.

Author

• Esa Syeed, Marymount University