In "Do school closings knock students off course?" by Umut Özek and Michael Hansen, published in the Washington Post Opinion section on November 30th, 2012, the authors argue that their study of longitudinal data indicates that, when a public school is shuttered, student test scores drop for the year of uncertainty and transition before bouncing back to their previous level.

The data may bear this out, and I am still exploring their report in depth. What I take major exception to is Özek and Hansen's conclusion:

"Let’s worry instead about the learning setbacks that come from protracted contentious battles and be guided by what research indicates: Kids bounce back after school closings."

Sounds an awful lot like, "Shut up, take the medicine, and leave the decisions to the grown-ups."

I implore the authors to offer similar longitudinal analyses of the young men and women who sat in at Woolworth's in 1960, or the young members of Voice of Youth in Chicago Education (V.O.Y.C.E.) and the Urban Youth Collaborative (U.Y.C.) in New York who continue to organize to stop school closures. As Shawn Ginwright, a Professor at San Francisco State University, has said:

"Social science research must consider how economic, social and political realities intimately shape the civic and political engagement among black youth. A deeper understanding of these forces will yield greater insight into new forms of politics among African American youth..."

Regardless of the return on test scores, to argue that organizing a critical response to the Mayoral-Controlled, largely unaccountable D.C.P.S. leadership causes "learning setbacks" for students, ignores  flies in the face of years of research. Anyone who has organized or advocated for anything of personal significance can speak of the passion that real-world, practical problem solving engenders. It is far more engaging than the rote memorization and standardized-test-induced data we as a nation encouraging students to consume today, with the Obama administration's recommendation of the Federal Bank of California's Monthly Report as a high school text.

Özek and Hansen also fail to account for the multitude of data that suggests students who engage in activism, advocacy, and organizing are far likelier to graduate on time, go on to college, and develop successful careers.

No "long-term harm"? Tell that to the students at Taft High School in the Bronx, a school that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department of Education closed in 2008. The dropout rate at Taft spiked from 25% the year closure was announced to 70% the year that the school closed. At Morris High School, also in the Bronx, the discharge rate rose from 33% the year closure was announced to 55% the year that the school closed.

I am not a data researcher but I am a student of history and an ally to students fighting for educational justice in D.C. and nationwide. The data researchers would be well-served to consider more than the numbers before making such sweeping claims that contradict hundreds of years of practical evidence: young people who organize become more committed to creating solutions within their communities.