Major initiatives in New York City and Chicago to close unsuccessful schools and create small schools in their wake are stirring criticism from some community activists, local politicians, and others.
Beyond the resistance that school closures often generate, some critics charge that the growing scale of the efforts is producing negative ripple effects on other schools in the cities.
In Chicago, the chief concerns appear to be whether the policies are leading to a rise in school violence, as well as causing academic disruption for students shifted to other schools. In New York, two of the biggest complaints are that the move to small high schools has caused an influx of special-needs students to other city high schools and has exacerbated overcrowding in some schools.
District officials in both cities counter at least some of those charges. For instance, New York officials insist that the small-schools effort is now easing overcrowding, not increasing it.
Also, while achievement data on many of the new schools are still in short supply, advocates are quick to note one powerful indicator: The schools are getting more applicants than they can handle.
鈥淓very new school we鈥檝e opened has a waiting list,鈥� said Arne Duncan, the chief executive officer of the 426,000-student Chicago school system. 鈥淸Families] are desperately looking for better options.鈥�
Still, the reactions to the rapid pace of change in New York, the nation鈥檚 largest school district, and Chicago, the third-largest, present reformers with the challenge of building public support for the closures, observers say.
鈥淭o the foundation leaders and maybe district leadership, it looks like they鈥檙e saving people by shutting down their schools and replacing them with a privately managed charter school,鈥� said Michael Klonsky, the director of the Chicago-based Small Schools Workshop. 鈥淭o the people on the ground, it seems like something [is] being done to them. 鈥� But it鈥檚 not just a school they鈥檙e losing. The school is often the anchor in the community.鈥�
James H. Shelton, an education program director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is supporting the small-schools efforts in both cities, said he is mindful of the central role schools serve, especially in low-income communities.
鈥淚f the institution is no longer preparing kids for life, then you鈥檙e contributing to the degradation of the community by leaving it in place,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen you change it, you have to do it respectfully, but you have to change it.鈥�
Concerns About Violence
Earlier this year, a member of the Chicago City Council put forward a resolution鈥攄iscussed at a hearing but never acted upon by the council鈥攃alling for a moratorium on further school closings in Chicago until the academic progress of all students whose schools were closed or reconstituted could be evaluated.
Some state legislators representing Chicago have challenged closings, and the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill in March that would impose new requirements for public review before the district could close a school.
The city鈥檚 Renaissance 2010 initiative, unveiled in 2004 by Mayor Richard M. Daley, aims to create 100 small schools鈥攂oth elementary and secondary鈥攂y the end of the decade. About two-thirds of the schools are to be operated by outside entities, either as charter schools or 鈥渃ontract鈥� schools; the others will be district schools that receive some freedom from district rules.
Part of the effort involves converting the district鈥檚 underenrolled and low-performing elementary and secondary schools into new schools. Typically, such schools are closed for a year, so students must attend other schools, at least temporarily.
鈥淲e know transfers set children back academically,鈥� said Julie Woestehoff, the executive director of the Chicago-based advocacy group Parents United for Responsible Education. 鈥淭he problem is the payoff is not necessarily going to be a better school. Chicago Public Schools has just thrown the net out and pulled in every fish in the sea.鈥�
The Chicago Teachers Union and other critics of the initiative cite a recent Chicago Sun-Times article noting increases in incidents of violence at some schools that had taken in students from schools closed under Renaissance 2010. Since they began admitting those students in the fall of 2004, all eight schools studied have posted an increase in reported violence that is at least twice the average for similar city high schools, the newspaper said.
鈥淭here is growing violence in the schools, particularly the high schools, that are receiving new students,鈥� said Rosemaria Genova, a spokeswoman for the Chicago union. 鈥淐hicago Public Schools needs to quit experimenting鈥� and focus its resources on improving existing schools, she argued.
But Mr. Duncan questioned the Sun-Times analysis, noting that overall incidents of school violence have declined by 5 percent this academic year.
Asked whether he saw any connection between the school transfers and violent incidents, he said: 鈥淥n a balanced look, in some cases there was, and in others it鈥檚 gone down. 鈥� The issues are very, very complex.鈥�
Spec. Ed. at Issue
In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Republican, has been pushing an aggressive small-schools program for the 1.1 million-student district since 2003. Already, nearly 200 small schools have been opened, and another 100 such schools are expected over the next few years.
Given extreme limits on available real estate, the city鈥檚 department of education has opted to locate many of the new schools within existing ones, whether in large high schools that are being phased out or in separate schools that will remain open.
In March, the Citywide Council on High Schools, a parent-advisory board to New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, unanimously passed a resolution urging the district to 鈥渟ubstantially delay鈥� implementation of new small high schools.
鈥淭he main concern really has to do with how the small schools are impacting the general school system, and the students who aren鈥檛 in the small schools,鈥� said David Bloomfield, a member of the council and vocal critic of the small-schools movement.
鈥淭hat seems to be an area that the Gates Foundation and the New York City public school system didn鈥檛 think about when they were starting to scale up the small schools,鈥� said Mr. Bloomfield, who heads the educational leadership program at the Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York.
Specifically, critics say many high schools have seen their enrollments swell substantially as 16 large high schools are being phased out and replaced with smaller schools housed in those facilities and elsewhere. They suggest that, if one large school is replaced by several smaller schools in the same facility, it usually won鈥檛 accommodate as many students. Many existing schools also are feeling squeezed, they say, as small schools are added to their campuses.
But Garth Harries, the head of the city鈥檚 office of new schools, said the new small schools are actually easing overcrowding by adding 5,000 seats to the system.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an unfortunate conflation of separate factors to say that small schools have crowded existing schools,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you look at the data, 鈥� the creation of small schools has added capacity, added seats to the school system.鈥�
One development sure to help is the $11.2 billion in school construction aid approved last month by the state for New York City.
Critics also blame the small-schools initiative for what they say is an increase in the number of students with disabilities and those who are English-language learners enrolled in some regular high schools. The district grants the new, small schools a temporary waiver from having to accept students who require self-contained classrooms for the schools鈥� first two years of existence.
Jill S. Levy, the president of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, which represents principals and other administrators in New York City, said the influx is a real problem. 鈥淭hey get clustered into the larger schools, and that has a huge effect [under] No Child Left Behind,鈥� she said of special-needs students, 鈥渁nd on the kinds of services that the school has to gear up.鈥�
The district agrees that the new, small schools are serving fewer students with disabilities and limited English skills than average, although they note those schools took in a higher proportion of such students this school year than the year before.
For this school year, 10.7 percent of high school students citywide were special education students, compared with 7.5 percent in the new, small schools. For English-language learners, the citywide average was 11.5 percent, compared with 10 percent at the new, small schools.
鈥淧art of the problem we鈥檙e combating is the warehousing of those students in some of those large high schools,鈥� Mr. Harries said. He argues that over time, the new, small schools will serve comparable proportions of special-needs students, and deliver them a far better education.
Mr. Shelton of the Gates Foundation said that while he鈥檚 found Gates-backed small schools are serving a proportionate number of low-income and minority students, the concern about special education students in New York was consistent with some of what he鈥檚 been hearing in other places.
鈥淲e鈥檙e disturbed by the fact that our special education representation is not as high as we would like it,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut over time, that鈥檚 going to normalize.鈥�
Mr. Shelton noted that the foundation has begun making grants to help local groups raise awareness about new schools, including among parents of students with disabilities.
鈥楪etting Better鈥�
Norm Fruchter, the director of the community-involvement program at New York University鈥檚 school of education, called the small-schools effort in New York 鈥渆xtraordinary, just in terms of its scale, scope, and timing.鈥� But while applauding its goals, Mr. Fruchter sees reasons for concern, given the zeal for opening so many school so rapidly. One is finding enough skilled leaders to run them. Another is space.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e sometimes forced into makeshift solutions,鈥� he said, 鈥渨hich oftentimes don鈥檛 play out in a way that maximizes meeting kids鈥� needs.鈥�
鈥淵ou saw them put small schools into high schools that couldn鈥檛 handle them,鈥� agreed Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, the city鈥檚 affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. 鈥淭hings are getting much better, but you still have a lot of schools saying, unless you have space, don鈥檛 create schools within schools.鈥�
鈥淚 think that there鈥檚 been legitimate concerns expressed, but I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 been a massive pushback,鈥� said Robert L. Hughes, the president of New Visions for Public Schools, which has helped develop small schools in New York. 鈥淚 think we鈥檝e learned a lot. 鈥� We鈥檙e a lot more effective with community engagement. We can show people what the change is about.鈥�
