Eve Ewing, author of "Ghosts in the Schoolyard" at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Not sure how well a liveblog will work for this, but I'm going to give it a shot. We're in the basement of the Gutman Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Posting as we go.
The subtitle is "Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side" as the book focuses on the 2013 closings (or read more here).
Currently she's an asssisant professor at University of Chicago; research of the impact of school closings by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research is here.
Note: really solid livetweet thread here. 
Going to give a preview of the book, and then give time for Q & A
in 2013, Chicago closed 50 schools (10,400 students); 90% of those schools were majority black students; 71% has majority black teachers
1 in 4 schools with majority black students and majority black teachers were closed
"building underutilization" was cited
disproportionately impacted black residents; racist policy
"does that new Chicago mean no black folks?"
Chicago school CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett referenced "underutilization crisis," rejected racism charge, as majority of children in city are children of color
rejected claim as a woman of color
"result of demographic changes and not race," she said
Ewing notes that Byrd Bennett has since been convicted on federal bribery charges
talk about "underutilization crisis"
population loss "just happen, not the result of race"
place 2013 school closing in broader context of Chicago; Bronzeville neighborhood is her focus, deep history in Black Chicago, also where she taught
Bronzeville part of growth of Black people during the Great Migration (outpaced overall growth)
residential segregation not only for usual reasons, but for violence: bombings struck residential areas
1 bombing every three weeks (homes, bankers, those who sold to Black families)
restrictive covenants also part of what kept segregation
density of population exceeded space available; created kitchenette apartments out of apartments
crowded spaces push people out into public sphere
lots of people, lots of children in high density: public housing system, and public school system both needed to deal with population explosion
slum clearance: Ida B. Wells Homes were first in low rise housing: natural for children to be able to play in front of their building (1941)
"a brief shining moment of historical possibility" to use it to chip away at segregation
quickly obliterated: were instead used to reenforce segregation
white Chicagoans used violence to keep Black families "in their place": met with riots
city council would destroy any proposal that put public housing in white neighborhoods
just kept building in Bronzeville
Robert Taylor Homes: 28 buildings, each of which had over 4400 units
housing authority gave priority to large families
lots and lots of kids: "where are they supposed to go to school?"
one way to solve it would have been to send them to other schools...which were white
instead they had have half schools in 50's and 60's
superintendent said "we build schools where there are students"
October 22: Freedom day; about 48% of students stayed home that day
as the CHA residences were torn down, population of those schools would likewise fall
HUD seized control from Chicago; 1999, city would regain control 22,000 units of high rise public housing
"The plan for transformation"
the right of return for 26,000 residents
did not pan out: not enough units, CHA created conditions
"housing that had been guaranteed...was contingent on all of these hoops that people had to jump through"
thousands of kids thus have move
Byrd Bennett: the kids were just gone
"there was no discussion of the role that segregation might have played, or that public housing might have played"
Rahm Emmanuel was vice chair of the CHA board when this was happening
recent history
violent bombing and restrictive covenants, public housing authority that were afraid to use their authority to desegrate system, school system that would rather have kids in half days than desegregation schools
"Are school closings always bad?'
cities need to be able to adapt and be nimble
"foolhearty" to make decisions without taking into account the history
"institutional mourning"
loss of place through losing a school
way of school closing was done "They didn't even have the compassion or care to tell the community before they told Fox News"
"such an uninformed process"
"which shows their lack of accountability; they are not a transparent organization"
research shows greatest impact is between the announcement of the closure and the end of the year
Hearings held: district would present why school would be closed, then community would comment
"had the air of a trial"
"feel like I'm at a slave trial...begging you not to take my family and separate them"
teachers with disaffected cynicism
different reasons why the school is important: it's my family
"all the ways you expect these children to be vulnerable, they are" (poor, special ed,)
"history and context matter"
cities that have been sitting on a bedrock of racism and segregation for a long time
"people did this: human people who made policy choices did this"
"if people made it, people can unmake it"
but until we do, we aren't just in danger of repeating it, we are repeating it

on to questions
Renaissance 2010?
huge part of story, as well; creation of choice and somehow system will improve
charters also closed; where was the long term plan?
Chicago hemorrhaging people, and most of them are black

what protects you from your own disaffected hope and cyncism?
"not a cynic, a pragmatist"
"hope is a discipline" (that's Mariame Kaba)
"These things have had a long time to fester and build"
institutional racism isn't a horse; it's a merry-go-round
"we have a legacy of fighters and resistors" (in Chicago)
to Dr. King's moral arc of the universe bends towards justice: "I think you have to bend it; I don't think it bends on its own"

the community that schools bring; advice for economists
"I can't say that I love all economists, but I love at least one."
"I don't think it's the culpability of a particular discipline"
urge towards quantification coming from the Industrial Revolution "rounded in racism"
"schools are places where kids are trying to learn...one of the most miraculous...magical things about what it means to be a human being"
teaching multiple people; how to quantify that
who gets to be at the table and what that does to an academic discipline
schools in a country that works really hard to erode public services...a kind of catch-all of all that is going wrong with our country
"there aren't just a lot of other institutions where that is happening"

On Boston:
"I feel for you."
Going to try to Skype in when more people can be part of the discussion.
"Mayoral control and mayoral appointed school boards are really troubling...we as people have no right to democratically elect those who run our schools"
what would it take to convert to an elected board? Long term planning
state injuction to stop school closure in Chicago
"organize, organize, organize, organize...nothing is done until it is done"
"what is this really about in Boston? ...another city that has rapidly become unlivable" for many
"how do you frame the narrative, what is your story?"
"every Chicago Public School is my school" art
"the quicker people understand...that this is not a decision that was made in a way that was rooted in civility and civility isn't going to change the results"

"the main asks should be around structure" in the decision making process
"the reason it is painful is the way it was done..and the history" of behind those decisions
how to bring everyone to the table so that everyone has a real say in the process
"meaningful opportunity for feedback" and real opportunity to be hear and included
from the research: announcing at the beginning of the year is bad
teachers and students need an understanding of where they are going, what supports they will have, what opportunites will be available to them
"huge behavioral disruptions from students whose schools had closed"
no clear plan in place to form a new community
facilities: A/C
real asks

selective enrollment schools question
became very unpopular among her alumni by pointing out that her own high school selected based on test scores (and thus couldn't brag on their success)
showing very little gains
"play very well into people's mischaracterization of meritocracy"