Schools serving majority-Black students are overrepresented among closed schools pre- and post-pandemic¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2030: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In 2024-25, majority-Black schools made up about one quarter of closed schools but less than 10% of open schools. → Isaacs 2025

Evidence¶

Isaacs 2025¶

Isaacs, J., Kuhfeld, M., Postell, S., & Hashim, A. (2025). Post-Pandemic School Closure Trends: Schools Serving Black Students Disproportionately Closed. NWEA White Paper. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/post-pandemic-school-closure-trends-schools-serving-black-students-disproportionately-closed/

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive comparison of lagged CCD demographics of closed versus open schools. Table 1 shows 22.3% of closed schools in 2024-25 were majority Black versus 9% of open schools. The overrepresentation "dipped slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic but has returned in the last few years."

"schools serving a majority of Black students represented approximately one quarter of the schools that closed in 2024-25 despite representing less than 10% of all open schools."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Race and Ethnicity — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause

Related Claims¶

• U.S. public school closure rates dipped during the pandemic and rebounded to essentially pre-pandemic levels by 2024-25 — related
• High-poverty schools are overrepresented among closed schools across the study period — related
• Racial disparities in 2024-25 closure likelihood hold after accounting for enrollment declines and poverty — related