Right Cause, Wrong Method? Examining the Politics of State Takeover in Georgia

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard O. Welsh ◽  
Sheneka Williams ◽  
Shafiqua Little ◽  
Jerome Graham
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Local Control ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Underperforming Schools ◽  
State Takeover ◽  
Corporate Interests

A growing number of states are using state-run school districts to take over and improve persistently underperforming schools. This article uses Georgia to examine the politics of state takeover. We analyze the supporting and opposing coalitions as well as the alignment between state takeover and charter schools in the campaign for the constitutional amendment to create a statewide turnaround district. Our findings show that corporate interests, the governor, and nonprofit organizations supported state takeover, whereas educators, parents, and community organizations opposed state takeover. There was bipartisan support across coalitions and a crisscrossing of interests regarding local control and the path to school improvement. There are divergent views on charter schools, with supporters of state takeover favoring charter schools.

scholarly journals Can States Take Over and Turn Around School Districts? Evidence From Lawrence, Massachusetts

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth E. Schueler ◽  
Joshua S. Goodman ◽  
David J. Deming
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Group Instruction ◽  
School Students ◽  
State Takeover ◽  
Achievement Gains ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around struggling schools, with federal school improvement money required to fund evidence-based policies. Most research on turnarounds has focused on individual schools, whereas studies of district-wide turnarounds have come from relatively exceptional settings and interventions. We study a district-wide turnaround of a type that may become more common under ESSA, an accountability-driven state takeover of Massachusetts’s Lawrence Public Schools (LPS). A differences-in-differences framework comparing LPS to demographically similar districts not subject to state takeover shows that the turnaround’s first 2 years produced sizable achievement gains in math and modest gains in reading. We also find no evidence that the turnaround resulted in slippage on nontest score outcomes and suggestive evidence of positive effects on grade progression among high school students. Intensive small-group instruction over vacation breaks may have led to particularly large achievement gains for participating students.

Recovery, Achievement, and Opportunity: A Comparative Analysis of State Takeover Districts in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard O. Welsh
Keyword(s):  
Urban Education ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Improvement Strategy ◽  
State Takeover ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
State Takeovers

Although state-run turnaround districts have grown in prominence as a school improvement strategy with significant equity implications for urban education, little is known about the similarities and differences across states. This article provides a comparative analysis of state-run takeover districts in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. Although there are several similarities such as the centrality of test-based accountability and charter schools as an intervention strategy, no two state takeover districts are the same. The effectiveness of state takeovers is mixed and complicated by equity concerns as well as uncertainty about which aspect of state takeovers may be driving school improvement.

scholarly journals Mitigating Childhood Food Insecurity during COVID-19: A Qualitative Study of how School Districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley Responded to Growing Needs

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Ashley H. Jowell ◽  
Janine S. Bruce ◽  
Gabriela V. Escobar ◽  
Valeria M. Ordonez ◽  
Christina A. Hecht ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
School Meal ◽  
Fresh Foods

Abstract Objectives: To explore best practices and challenges in providing school meals during COVID-19 in a low-income, predominantly Latino, urban-rural region. Design: Semi structured interviews with school district stakeholders and focus groups with parents were conducted to explore school meal provision during COVID-19 from June to August 2020. Data was coded and themes were identified to guide analysis. Community organizations were involved in all aspects of study design, recruitment, data collection, and analysis. Setting: Six school districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Participants: School district stakeholders (n=11) included food service directors, school superintendents, and community partners (e.g., funders, food co-operative). Focus groups (n=6) were comprised of parents (n=29) of children participating in school meal programs. Results: COVID-19-related challenges for districts included developing safe meal distribution systems, boosting low participation, covering COVID-19-related costs, and staying informed of policy changes. Barriers for families included transportation difficulties, safety concerns, and a lack of fresh foods. Innovative strategies to address obstacles included pandemic-EBT, bus-stop delivery, community pick-up locations, batched meals, and leveraging partner resources. Conclusions: A focus on fresher, more appealing meals and greater communication between school officials and parents could boost participation. Districts that leveraged external partnerships were better equipped to provide meals during pandemic conditions. In addition, policies increasing access to fresh foods and capitalizing on USDA waivers could boost school meal participation. Finally, partnering with community organizations and acting upon parent feedback could improve school meal systems, and in combination with pandemic-EBT, address childhood food insecurity.

The Ties That Bind: Building Civic Capacity for the Tennessee Achievement School District

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 928-964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Glazer ◽  
Cori Egan
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Market Orientation ◽  
Local Control ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Disadvantaged Students ◽  
Underperforming Schools ◽  
Civic Capacity ◽  
Educational Failure ◽  
Local Political Institutions

The Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) is among several state-run districts established to turn around underperforming schools. Like other such districts, the ASD removes schools from local control and is not accountable to local political institutions. Despite its authority, the ASD has encountered opposition within Memphis where its schools reside. For those inclined to its market orientation and suspicious of traditional districts, the ASD is an innovative effort to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students. For those that see educational failure in Memphis as the result of social and economic isolation, the ASD appears motivated by profit, paternalism, and racism. A third narrative, largely hidden from view, encompasses people who reject state takeover but seek to confront structural causes of poor performance.

scholarly journals When the Walls Come Down: Evidence on Charter Schools’ Ability to Keep Their Best Teachers Without Unions and Certification Rules

2021 ◽  
pp. 016237372110472
Author(s):  
Nathan Barrett ◽  
Deven Carlson ◽  
Douglas N. Harris ◽  
Jane Arnold Lincove
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Average Quality ◽  
Teacher Labor Markets ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Best Teachers ◽  
The Relationship

Theories of market-based school reform suggest that teacher labor markets may be inefficient because schools lack autonomy to incentivize performance in hiring, retention, and compensation. We test this empirically by comparing teacher exits in the deregulated market of New Orleans with neighboring traditional school districts. We find that the relationship between teacher performance and retention is stronger in the deregulated market. We also find positive associations between salary and performance, but only when teachers transfer from one charter school to another. While teacher retention is more closely tied to performance in New Orleans, this did not yield a net gain in teacher quality, because new teachers in New Orleans were of lower average quality than their peers in neighboring districts.

scholarly journals Coign of vantage and action: Considering California’ local accountability and school finance plans for English learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Vasquez Heilig ◽  
Lisa S. Romero ◽  
Megan Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Local Control ◽  
School Finance ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Educational Equity ◽  
Public Schooling ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Funding Formula ◽  
Local Control Funding Formula

Local control has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its inception. In 2013, the California Legislature codified a new local accountability approach for school finance. An important component of the new California Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) approach is a focus on English learners (ELs). The law mandates that every school district produce a Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) to engage the local community in defining outcomes and determining funding for ELs. Based on an exploratory analysis of a representative sample of LCAPs, we show that, although California’s new approach offered an opportunity to support locally-defined priorities and alternatives to top-down accountability, few if any districts had yet took full advantage of the opportunity. That is, the school districts in our sample had not yet engaged with the local community to facilitate significant changes to accountability or redistribution of funding and resources to support educational equity for ELs.

scholarly journals The Swedish Context Bringing Support Structures to Scale: The Role of the State and School Districts

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-131
Author(s):  
Olof Johansson ◽  
Helene Ärlestig
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
System Improvement ◽  
Project Structure

AbstractThis chapter explores the “theory of action” underlying the Swedish government’s national school improvement program called Cooperation for Better Schools. We discuss particularly the assumptions about the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders, including schools, school districts, and universities. Our analysis focuses on the issue of institutional capacity for sustained system improvement. In this regard, our approach draws on the perspectives associated with contemporary policy analysis, which includes greater attention to qualitative and interpretive methods to understand the complexity of policy-induced change in contemporary society. We start by describing the project structure and our method. Thereafter, we analyze the government’s understanding and arguments for why it is important to help underperforming schools, before we give examples about how involved actors define problems and solutions in project documents. In the conclusion, we highlight strengths and deficits in the improvement process.

Do charter schools alleviate the negative effect of teacher turnover?

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlerik Naslund ◽  
Branco Ponomariov
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Using Data

Using data on charter and public school districts in Texas, we test the hypothesis that the labor practices in charter schools, in particular their ability to easily dismiss poorly performing teachers, diminishes the negative effect of teacher turnover on student achievement and graduation rates in comparison to public schools. We find some support for this hypothesis, and discuss implications for theory and practice.

Funding Structures and State Capacity for School Improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Case Studies of Five States

2021 ◽  
pp. e20210005
Author(s):  
Hailey Karcher ◽  
David S. Knight
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Title I ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Improvement Strategies ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal government allocates 7% of Title I funds, about $1 billion per year, for school improvement. States have substantial autonomy in allocating these funds, including which schools are identified for federal school improvement, what improvement strategies are used, and whether external intermediaries are involved. A growing area of research explores the private, often for-profit school improvement industry, but few studies track the finance and policy structures that funnel public funds to external K–12 intermediaries. In this study, we draw on document analysis and interview data to explore school improvement practices and finance policies in five case study states. We find that states use varied methods for identifying schools for improvement, and also vary in the extent to which they provide local autonomy to school districts. Some states, such as Texas and Tennessee, incentivize schools to adopt particular strategies or encourage partnering with an external intermediary. Texas provides a list of vetted external intermediaries they expect districts to work with (and support financially). Other states, such as California and New York, provide more state-led school improvement strategies through regional offices and give districts greater local autonomy. Findings point to possible benefits of local autonomy, while highlighting potential challenges associated with unregulated market-based reforms in education.

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