This week New York City announced that it was closing four public schools. It’s rather unusual to hear of a school system closing schools for any reason, let alone justifying it on academic, as opposed to population and enrollment-related, grounds. Yet, that’s exactly what they did. In a detailed email announcing the move, the Department of Education cited low graduation rates, poor performance review grades, persistent failure to help students make progress, and, most unusual of all, low and declining demand for the schools.
Low and declining demand? As a reason to close schools? It’s almost as if they think students should have some type of choice about where they want to go to school.
More on the New York City school choice process here.
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.
“Low demand for schools”..???? How can this be justified? School and education are not economic demands… they are a necessity which government should fulfill no matter what!
If poor enrollment puts a school in losses… even that is justified in front of the future of a country… There are some things in our daily life which can be put above mere profit and loss; in fact somethings like education should be out above everything else!