The effect of primary school closures on educational attainments of students

A combination of school mismanagement, weak financial situation and low student attainments led to a permanent closure of primary schools in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2007. This study examines if the school closure positively affected the test scores that children achieved on a standardized and national test and if secondary school level advices children received at the end of primary education are higher. More specifically, we examine if receiving more years of education on a new and presumably better primary school leads to higher test scores and better secondary school level advices. In doing so, we compare children who switched schools because of the school closure with a control group of children at receiving schools and with a similar ideological background. The results indicate that student test scores are unaffected by the school closure. Secondary school advices, however, tend to be higher for children who received one year of education on a new primary school, but this effect fades out, and eventually becomes negative, for students who are enrolled for a longer period in the receiving school.