Podcast Reflection #10: Large schools claim it's 'not their fault'

On this episode of Learning Matters, Amanda Thieroff explores the issue of large school underperformance. While many large schools are being closed because they are not performing high enough, the result is not always positive. As large schools are closed, smaller schools are being overcrowded because they do not have the ability to reject "over the counter" students who are coming from closed schools. Moreover, this overcrowding is leading to schools with one-third of the school population having special needs, causing great amounts of burn-out among educators and the school community. Therefore, it leads one to question if the decision to simply close large underperforming schools is the most effective option. Finally, after seeing these not so positive results,  one would think school officials would explore more options to support the large schools and help them find ways to meet the yearly expectations. Although I do not have the answer to this dilemma, I certainly look forward to seeing what happens and hope for the best.