Chicago School Closings: The Impact on Teaching and Learning Conditions

• In Event: 49.037 - Closing Neighborhood Schools and Opening Charter Schools: The Restructuring of Public Education in Chicago

Abstract

1. Objectives
Our study evaluates the 2013 CPS school closures from the perspective of resource adequacy and equity to re-center public discussion on the district’s fundamental premise that closing schools would improve resources and educational equity for affected students. The objective is to inform public discussion and sharpen the media’s focus on these issues.
2. Theoretical Framework
The analysis is based on the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) positions supporting adequate and equitable resources in all Chicago public schools. We draw on the framework developed in the CTU’s educational blueprint, The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve (CTU, 2012) to analyze the fulfillment of promises CPS made to convince the public that school closings would improve education and benefit students. This study also addresses issues of equity, drawing on the framework in the CTU’s analysis of school choice and privatization (Caref, et al, 2012). Using that framing, we critique the simultaneous opening of charter schools and expansion of selective enrollment schools in more affluent and White areas as neighborhood schools are closed in Black and Latino low-income communities.
3. Methods
We conducted semi-structured interviews with teachers from seven designated receiving schools. We analyzed: CPS budgetary data to determine the portion of funds dedicated to school closing expenses that directly supported receiving school budgets in FY13 and FY14, start-up funds for charter schools in FY14, and total school-closings related costs; and, CPS staffing files to determine what programmatic supports existed at receiving schools in FY14, the number, rate, and length of position vacancies at receiving schools compared to other elementary schools, and the allocation of clinician staff in receiving schools before and after the closings.
4. Data
We analyzed interview transcripts with teachers from seven receiving schools, CPS budgetary data for FY2013 and FY2014, CPS staffing files and school rosters for FY 2014, CPS 2014 enrollment data, CPS 2013 press releases and power-point presentations, and media reports.
5. Results
We found closing and consolidating schools with low enrollment did not lead to increased resources for students. Receiving schools were still inadequately resourced, absolutely and relative to other district schools. The evidence also challenges the district’s claim it invested $80 million in receiving schools. New charter schools opening in the very same year received ten times more on a per-pupil basis in direct funding, and capital expenditures on a per-pupil basis were nearly 20 times greater for selective enrollment school expansion than for receiving school improvements. Teachers reported closures caused difficult transitions and were insufficiently supported, cost hundreds of millions to implement, yet did not address systemic resource inequities that plague neighborhood schools.
6. Significance
This research contributes to public discourse on the 2013 school closings and the decade-long policy of neighborhood school closures and privatization. CPS officials and the mayor’s intense campaigning around “under-utilization” of schools portrayed the decision to close schools as rational, but there was public skepticism due to intensified discussions around privatization and school equity in Chicago over the last several years. The paper contributes to this ongoing public discussion.

Authors

• Carol Caref, Chicago Teachers Union

• Sarah Hainds, Chicago Teachers Union

• Pavlyn Jankov, Chicago Teachers Union