Low performing schools languishing and closing down is NOT a good thing.

For instance, I teach in Texas in a low performing school.  Among middle schools in my city, we were second to last in standardized test results.  Personally, most of my students passed the tests with flying colors, but I'm still part of what would be termed a failing school.

My colleague teaches only the lowest performing students because she's great at it.  Last year (in 7th grade) only 30% of her students passed testing.  This year, 56% of her students passed.  Clearly, she did some good work.  Even most of her students who were unable to pass showed growth in their individual scores.

Both of us consistently recieve very impressive evaluations.  But according to the definition most outsiders have, we're part of the problem because our school performs poorly.

We're also the largest middle school in town, situated firmly in the ghetto.  Let me explain what happens when we shut down.

1) Approximately 100 school professionals lose jobs, and there aren't enough places for us all to work.  Our education becomes useless.  And nobody in their right mind would hire us, because hey, we were part of a low performing school.

2) Close to a thousand kids are split up into multiple different schools, with most of the other schools lacking space in which to handle more students.  Student teacher ratios decrease, discipline problems increase, and these other schools slowly become low performing because we are required to provide education to everyone.

3) Schools that were doing okay slowly lapse into performing poorly.  Over time, the quality of education decreases for everyone.  The low performing and poor kids are not able to receive the intervention they need, and the kids who were probably already going to be successful due to affluence and parental involvement succeed anyway.  

What we end up with is an even deeper divide between the rich and poor.  

Schools closing is never a good thing, and the fact that anyone could think so is proof that the people who make educational decisions should be people who have actually worked in education.

---