Organizational Implications of School Closings: A Systems-Level Perspective

This study uses an organizational perspective to examine whether school closings and the accompanying redistribution of resources (students and programs) has implications for surviving schools in the surrounding school boundary. I use school-level data from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and School Attendance Boundary Information System to analyze how school closings impact student composition and program distribution in elementary schools during school years 2005-2006 through 2012-2013. Nearest neighbor matching demonstrates school closings are associated with higher populations of minority students and students with greater socioeconomic needs in nearby schools that remain open. Additionally, schools in the same boundary as closed schools are more likely to have a specialized structure (i.e. as a magnet or charter).