Columbus High School and Jefferson High School are among 19 schools to be closed for not making the grade in the nation's largest school district. The closures announced last month are part of an aggressive city plan to shut down low-performing schools in favor of smaller, more specialized ones.
    
Critics say the new schools skim off the better students.
    
"Those new schools enrolled kids who are less at-risk academically,'' said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University. He said the school system "hasn't been very transparent'' about where the weakest students from the closed schools end up.

 

The article "Union, Parents Fight Closure of Older NYC Schools" was published on February 13th, 2010 in NBC New York Website http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Union-Parents-Fight-Closure-of-Older-NYC-Schools-84301927.html