As schools struggled to overcome the chaos and academic harm inflicted by COVID, many turned to tutoring as a simple, if sometimes costly, solution. By the end of 2023, the vast majority of states were funding tutoring programs, and by one estimate, at least $7.5 billion of federal relief funds were being directed to new offerings. 

Low performing schools are twice as likely to have lost substantial numbers of students – with nearly 500 losing 20% or more since the pandemic, marking them potential candidates for closures, a new national report has revealed.

Analysis released yesterday by the Fordham Institute put forth a list of close to 500 strained schools as a “wake up call” for districts to plan interventions such as family engagement, high dosage tutoring and address specific community concerns before they “find themselves pushed against a wall” and forced to close schools, said author Sofoklis Goulas, a fellow with the Brookings Institution who built on his prior enrollment research in this latest study with Fordham.

The architects of Denver Public Schools’ former reform efforts are lauding a new study that validates a strategy that largely has been abandoned both in Denver and nationwide: closing low-performing schools and opening new ones that might serve students better.

The analysis from University of Colorado Denver researchers finds that most students who left closed Denver schools and attended new ones saw their test scores go up, with greater gains for English learners and students with disabilities.

Student achievement also went up districtwide, which study authors attribute to years-long efforts to give school leaders more autonomy, hold them accountable for results, and make it easier for families to choose among a range of schools.