The Effect of School Consolidation on Student Achievement

Abstract

Many countries have seen a substantial increase in the average school size over the past decades, and a corresponding reduction in the number of schools. It has been widely argued that both students and local communities have suffered from these consolidations. Despite their vast extent and controversy, the literature is scarce with evidence of how consolidation affects performance of exposed students. This study explores how consolidation of 76 rural lower secondary schools in Norway affects students' educational performance, using rich register data. I find no indication that school consolidation reduces educational achievement.Nonetheless, the analysis suggests a negative association between school closure and grade point average, but this effect appears to be driven by lenient grading in small schools.

Agents of centralization? Local school administrations and contested school closures in Norwegian rural districts

“…School closure has been studied in terms of the effects on local communities (see e.g. Egelund and Laustsen, 2006;Hargreaves, 2009;Kvalsund, 2009) and the quality of education (Beuchert-Pedersen et al, 2016;Leuven and Rønning, 2016;Thorsen, 2017), the opportunities and challenges of schools with mixed-age classes (Engan, 2017), as well as the impact of lengthy bus transport (Solstad and Solstad, 2015). Often overlooked in research and debates about change of municipal school structure is the less-visible municipal school administration (MSA): local politicians and interest groups dominate the scene.…”