When the city decides to close a low-performing high school, it is usually phased out over a period of four years. That mean no new students are admitted, but the students who are there are supposed to be able to stay until they graduate.  Now, a student advocacy group charges that the city has forced out thousands of students who were left at closing schools.

“The problems that produce poor performance are often exacerbated when closure is announced,” according to the report, No Closer to College, published by the Urban Youth Collaborative. “School spirit and morale plummet, staff scramble for jobs at other schools, enrichment and afterschool programs move elsewhere, and schools become physically marginalized in their own buildings.”

According to the report, of the 33,000 students in the 21 New York City high schools that have been closed since since 2000:

  • 5,612 dropped out

  • 9,668 were discharged from the school system

  • 8,089 were still enrolled when their schools closed, and there is no data showing what happened to them

  • Only 9,592 actually graduated.

The report quotes Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief academic officer of the Department of Education, as saying “there’s not been a consistent set of supports for the schools that are phasing out,” adding that the city has an obligation to “create opportunities” students who want to stay and graduate.

The report calls on the city to invest in struggling schools rather than closing them.