The extent to which pandemic-induced public school enrollment declines will persist is unclear. Student-level data from Michigan through fall 2021 yields three relevant findings. First, relative to pre-pandemic trends, fall 2021 enrollment had partially recovered for low-income, Black, and Hispanic students, but had declined further for…

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using longitudinal student-level administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative data from the Census Household Pulse Survey, we show how the…

This multi-sited qualitative case study explores how faculty members that are in school districts experiencing enrollment decline made sense of a policy that has potential implications to disrupt the work that they do in the school. The study is based on the notion that the context that a policy is playing out in matters for how the policy is…

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using longitudinal student-level administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative data from the Census Household Pulse Survey, we show how the…

With the 2022 midterm elections behind us and 2023 state legislative sessions ahead, policymakers must shift their time and attention from winning reelection to addressing the perfect storm brewing in education. Three significant challenges paint a grim picture for students and public schools unless policymakers step in to help: catastrophic…

With the intent of improving understanding of cuts to elementary arts programs, the purpose of this research was to investigate how one urban school district (Lansing School District in Lansing, Michigan) eliminated its elementary arts specialists. Research questions were (1) What policy conditions enabled the Lansing School District's decision to…

Right now, many states and districts are struggling to fill teaching positions. Between 2009 and 2015, enrollment in teacher preparation programs fell by 35% and the number of program completers fell by 18%, meaning fewer teachers are entering the field. Teacher attrition, including all teachers who leave the profession for any reason, is just…

In 2009, the city of Detroit proposed a $500.5 million bond referendum to stem the declining enrollment in Detroit Public Schools (DPS) that mirrored the decades-long decline in the city's population. Proposal S was passed in November to fund the construction of 8 new schools, the renovation of 10 more, and the improvement of information…

This brief examines the series of events that led to the Highland Park school district being converted to a system of charter public schools in 2012. Used as a strategy to help the district eliminate its large fiscal debt while still providing resident students with a local public school option, Highland Park's charter conversion is one of the…

For decades, people questioned the sense of having two school districts, each with its own superintendent, central office and high school, operating in the same small town of The Dalles on the banks of the Columbia River in north-central Oregon. But election campaigns to consolidate repeatedly failed because each community had strong emotional…

According to an American Association of School Administrators survey, 6 percent of school districts closed or consolidated schools during the 2008-2009 school year, double the rate of the previous year. Another 11 percent are considering school closings or consolidations in 2010-2011. In the 1980's, declining enrollments were the main reason for…

At the Oakland Technical Center, which provides vocational programs for nine Michigan high schools, a one-semester course in Foundations of Technology Systems uses a computer-simulated manufacturing environment to teach applied math, science, language arts, communication skills, problem solving, and teamwork in the context of technology education.…

The 7th edition of this publication provides updated projections of high school graduates for each year and each state (plus the District of Columbia) through 2022. The profile breaks down the projections by major racial and ethnic groups: (1) American Indian/Alaska Native; (2) Asian/Pacific Islander; (3) Black, non-Hispanic; (4) Hispanic; and (5)…

Across the U.S., urban school districts are losing students and shuttering schools. In Detroit, some 35,000 students have left the city schools in less than a decade, and the city will close 34 schools and reassign more than 10,000 students in 2006. However, the trend is not limited to Rust Belt cities like Detroit, although their problems tend to…

This paper is a quantitative assessment of the argument that enrollment declines have contributed to increases in per pupil expenditures in public education. It analyzes changes in resource levels per pupil in Michigan from 1970 to 1980 and the extent to which they are related to changes in enrollment. (TE)