SKIP

📖 Part 2 of 3

As a whole, St. Louis City district and charter schools have been facing declining student enrollment for decades. Since public school funding is based on enrollment and costs of maintaining buildings are fixed, resources to serve students who remain are spread thinner each year.

In 2022, informed by parents and educators, we worked with researchers to build a computational model that was calibrated with school and neighborhood data to test policies that could reverse enrollment trends, such as: pausing new school openings; consolidating existing schools (i.e., closing schools); increasing funding; raising teacher salaries; marketing schools; and improving community safety.

What did we find?

Of all the policy interventions, only one was effective at stabilizing enrollment and thereby conserving resources to foster the conditions for academic achievement. Closing a large number of schools in a short period was effective at stabilizing enrollment across the entire system.

While this approach helps the education system financially, the long-term side effects could be harmful if not executed with thoughtful alternatives. For more on the racially inequitable impact of St. Louis school closures, refer to Dr. Ebony Duncan-Shippy's paper or Eve Ewing’s book on Chicago school closures: Ghosts in the Schoolyard.

Follow along next week for Part 3. Get a sneak peek here: https://skipdesigned.com/k-12-model-sharing/

“[Choosing a school in St. Louis] leads to extreme stress, societal pressures, and parental guilt,” wrote a St. Louis parent. “We moved to a place where we didn’t have to choose our school, and it’s a comfort and a relief. St. Louis City has way too many schools for too few kids, and it’s hurting everyone.”

As a system of district and charter schools, we lose 650 students annually--a combined $11 million each year.

Despite dedicated educators, a shrinking budget makes it challenging to meet the needs of the students who remain.

Declining enrollment is tough to solve. It would have been fixed by now if it weren’t. St. Louis families and schools, both district and charter, are working hard on deeply rooted challenges that are too big for any single leader, school, or initiative to solve alone.

In 2022, a group of St. Louis district and charter school leaders decided to try something different. They met monthly to address shared challenges in the hopes of building an efficient, high-performing system of schools. SKIP DesignEd & MIT offered pro-bono research to support their efforts. Follow along for what we found.

📖 Part 1 of 3

Want to know more? Check out our webpage.

Exciting update! 🌟 The St. Louis Research-Practice Collaborative just wrapped up its final advisory committee meeting for the pilot study on student mobility. 📚 We're thrilled to announce a renewed commitment to collaboration, learning, and adaptation to better serve students and educators across the region! 🤝 This partnership is all about making informed decisions with data to support children in STL, and we can't wait to do more. 🚀

In the coming weeks, stay tuned as the St. Louis School Research-Practice Partnership shares and designs what's next. 🎉 If you're curious and want to learn more about our work, visit www.stlrpc.org. ❤

Today, we're visiting 's Winter Assemble hosted in the beautiful library of East St Louis High School!

One Goal works with districts across the nation to drive student success after high school. Check out their work to transform postsecondary advising and support in schools.

Thanks for letting us tag along!

We loved hosting ! His excellence in work and contagious joy made our summer so memorable. Thanks to the for hosting this program.