For families, students, and staff, losing a beloved neighborhood school can upend livelihoods, and cause educational disruption and emotional distress. Students may have difficulty transitioning to a new school community, have to travel farther distances, or experience an increase in transit costs and time, exacerbating barriers to an equal education. These impacts are serious and can cause educational harm to students and their families.
Deep community engagement is the best practice for all districts, as it pays dividends beyond school closures. Increased parent and student engagement lead to better academic achievement and attendance, which in Washington State leads to more funding for schools and the decreased likelihood of future school closures.
Districts should also conduct an equity impact assessment before implementing school closures to protect Washington’s students and communities from inequality and injustice, and provide the public with the set of metrics or criteria proposed for closure decisions so that the public can provide input.
One of the biggest decisions districts will face is which schools to close. And while some of that may be geographic and predetermined by where enrollment is dropping, it‘s possible to also consider school performance and student achievement. One thing that districts do and struggle with is how much they factor in how effective the school is. Districts are going to take students and reassign them to a new school. Hopefully the effects are positive that the students are assigned to a better-performing school than the one they went to. If they do it well, districts can make sure kids are not harmed in the process.
Please explain the inappropriate content below.
