Explaining school closures in Chicago, 2000-2013
Executive Summary
Why These Schools? Explaining School Closures in Chicago, 2000–2013 examines why Chicago Public Schools closed schools during the mayoral administrations of Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel. The researchers analyzed 541 public elementary, middle, and high schools that were open in 2000, using logistic regression to assess how building utilization, enrollment trends, student performance, demographics, location, neighborhood conditions, and political factors shaped closure decisions. The report finds that underutilization, declining enrollment, and lower standardized test scores increased the likelihood of closure, reflecting CPS’s stated concerns about efficiency, performance, and fiscal pressures. However, race remained an independent predictor: schools serving larger percentages of African American students were more likely to close than otherwise comparable schools with similar utilization, performance, and location. The analysis also found limited evidence that neighborhood income, housing values, or other demographic characteristics independently explained closures. These decisions disproportionately disrupted African American students, families, and communities, particularly on Chicago’s South and West Sides, while weakening schools’ roles as neighborhood anchors. The authors conclude that seemingly technical capital-planning criteria operated within a racially unequal educational system and that school facilities planning should be more transparent, coordinated with urban development, attentive to community impacts, and responsive to long-term educational needs.