CPS school closings driven by politics, not data.

When Rahm’s hand picked members of the Chicago school board meet today to vote on a half dozen school closings and turning 10 more schools over to private management, it will be a decision that has nothing to do with data or student needs.

The data was provided yesterday in a report by Designs for Change, a Chicago-based school research group headed by Don Moore.

Moore’s exhaustive study compares the performance of turnaround schools to what he calls “school-based democracy, with high-poverty high-achieving collaborative Chicago elementary schools — in which parents, teachers, the principal, the community and students work together to strengthen to quality of education and achievement.”

Among the study’s conclusions:

• The Chicago turnaround strategy does not meet the needs of high poverty students.
• Turnaround schools receive significantly higher support that should go to neighborhood schools.
• The major difference between high and low performing schools is the amount of time spent on engaging activities rather than time on testing and test prep.
• High performing democratic schools have close ties to the community.
• The resources now used for Turnaround schools need to be shifted to helping these effective schools become resources for other schools and to support their own mutual continued improvement.

The entire study can be found here.