The truth about school choice and school closures

I'm absolutely certain about two things in the school closure and reconfiguation debate:

• School choice/open enrollment clearly widens the demographic gap between "good" schools and "not-so-good" schools.
• Merely reconfiguring schools into K-8's, while ignoring curricular reform, will do nothing to raise student ahievement.

The Oregonian's article Saturday about diversity in schools provides data to corroborate my first point:

"In general, district data indicate that white students and students who aren't low-income are more likely to transfer out of their K-5 elementary school, particularly in North and inner Northeast. In outer east, race is less of a factor, but students who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunches [i.e., not poor] are more likely to transfer.

In short, school choice marginalizes some schools while benefiting others, in particular the district's growing array of magnets and focus option progams.  In addition, charter schools, if fully implemented under current rules, could siphon off  20% of the district's "good" students from neighborhood schools.  A district thus divided, to paraphrase Lincoln, cannot stand.

The second point about achievement is only tangentially mentioned in the article's reference to the possibility of "high poverty K-8 schools" by board member Sonya Henning:

"Henning said she's trying to balance that drawback against the possibility that K-8 schools could improve students' lackluster academic achievement in middle school."

That's fuzzy thinking.  Portland's middle schools, like all middle schools in Oregon, measure the achievement of eighth graders in reading and math.  It's quite common everywhere, in Oregon and nationally, for scores of eighth grade students on achievement tests, as measured against standards, to drop from the performance of fifth graders.  Why?  There are a number of reasons, but one stands out:  In eighth grade, the standards are higher.  In that sense, it's statistically misleading to compare the performance of middle schools with K-5 schools.

The debate between K-8's and middle schools is essentially beside the point.  Vicki Phillips simply wants to close and consolidate schools to demonstrate to the public that the district can operate more efficiently.  It's the "business model" of school management at work.