What happens when Duncan runs your schools?

I fear because it got buried in most national papers (p. A17 of the New York Times, for example), you may have missed the University of Chicago's study of just what happens to kids when you close schools.
For those of you who haven't followed the national press on this, Arne Duncan became Secretary of Education under President Obama after running Chicago's public schools. Duncan was appointed by Mayor Richard Daley (yes, Chicago's schools run on the "strong mayor" model) as CPS Chief Executive Officer. Duncan was a big part of implementing the "Renaissance 2010" program, which has, to say the least, been controversal. Duncan has closed numerous schools (22 have closed since 2001, 'though not all of that was under Duncan), fired teachers and principals, and thrown neighborhoods into turmoil.

Has it done any good?

Not so much, it seems.

• When it's announced that a school will close, student test scores go down.
• Once a school has closed, student achievement returns to what it was prior to the announced closing.
• Student improvement, long term, depends entirely on the sort of school the student ends up in (and most students, in the Chicago study, ended up in schools that mirrored the schools from which they'd come).

This is the "chronically underperforming" question now before the Massachusetts Legislature and this is part of Race to the Top. Worth keeping a close eye on.