Reports that CPS CEO J.C. Brizard will go ahead and act on his plan for targeted school closings and turnaround, even ahead of all the public hearings, has caused concern.
There will be even more concern today with the release of a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research.
The study provides only a little evidence that the upheaval and financial investment in turnarounds is worth the substantial cost, estimated to be at least $20 million in the coming school year. That does not include millions more in capital spending on building renovations at these schools.
In fact, the study draws no conclusion about whether turnarounds are the best strategy to improve the lowest-achieving schools, or whether the Academy for Urban School Leadership is the best organization to carry it out.
“That is not what we were studying,” said Elaine Allensworth, a senior director and chief research officer at the Consortium.
The study found that student achievement improved at schools that underwent particular types of intervention. But the study made no distinction between three radically different strategies: schools that were turned around; schools that were closed for low achievement and re-opened as new schools, with a mostly-new group of already higher-performing students; and schools whose principals were sent to a two-year professional development program at the University of Virginia.
I vote for sending the principal to Virginia instead of closing the school.
Fred Klonsky 
Let’s also send J.C. Brizard. I’m sure it will complement his Broad Academy education nicely.