The purpose of this dissertation was to identify and analyze the social and political factors that affected two school closing decisions in the Cincinnati Public Schools and to develop recommendations for improving the process of making school closing decisions in the future. The procedure for conducting the study involved the preparation of case reports on each of the two school closing experiences. These cases were analyzed by using an interaction decision model and by conducting interviews with three of the people who had been active participants in each of the decision processes. From these analyses a series of questions was developed for use in analyzing three case reports on subsequent school closing considerations in which a different decision process was used. Several social and political factors were identified as having affected the decisions in the cases that were studied. The principals and the school communities had learned about the proposed closing of their schools through information leaks from the central office in both instances. Subsequent efforts to involve the communities in the decision process were rejected because they appeared to have occurred after the decisions had been made. Among the recommendations that were made to guide the decision makers who will be considering the closing of schools because of declining enrollments are the following: (1) a comprehensive collection of data concerning each school should be compiled and a school should be considered for closing only if such action is supported by the data, and (2) school principals who will be affected by the closings should be involved in the decision from the start of the data collection stage. (Author/AM)