Federalism, Race, and the Politics of Turnaround: U.S. Public Opinion on Improving Low-Performing Schools and Districts

Public support for school improvement policies can increase the success and durability of those reforms. However, little is known about public views on turnaround. We capitalize on a nationally representative 2017 survey ( N = 4,214) to uncover opinions regarding which level of government should lead on turnaround and state takeover of troubled districts. We find controversy surrounding state intervention into low-performing schools is not driven by a generalized allegiance to local control over education. We observe high levels of support for state-level leadership in identifying and fixing failing schools, and even for state takeover of struggling districts. Instead, opposition appears to arise from the loss of local political and economic power, often experienced by majority-Black communities, that typically accompanies state takeover.

The “Structurally Adjusted” School: A Case from New York

This article argues that U.S. education reforms for “failing” schools are strikingly similar to a domestic Structural Adjustment Program; and that comparing the two clarifies: how K–12 schools are neoliberalized and how neoliberalism’s key feature is the making of a larger yet less democratic state. The study contrasts with the scholarship claiming that reforms epitomized by the “No Child Left Behind Act” are neoliberal because they stem from interests in privatization for capital accumulation. The analysis focuses on a “failing” school navigating federal reforms in New York State, drawing on education policy, school documents, ethnography, and interviews. It shows how the neoliberal state took power from local school authorities, and largely did not shrink the state via privatization. This work illustrates how neoliberal reforms for “failing” schools are at least as much about power as they are about profits and demonstrates the large-scale continuity in neoliberal restructuring strategies and outcomes.

The Missing Hub in the Wheel: Improving Ghanaian Basic Schools through Teacher Empowerment

The study adopted the explanatory sequential Mixed Method design approach. Using the proportional stratified random sampling technique, the study sampled 325 respondents made up of 260 teachers and 65 headteachers from the four categories of basic schools in the Central Region of Ghana for the quantitative phase of the study. Subsequently, 15 teachers and 5 headteachers from 4 categories of schools were sampled purposely for the qualitative phase of the study. Questionnaires and interview guides were used to collect data. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive (Means and Standard Deviation) statistics whilst the qualitative data were analysed thematically. It was evident from the results that teachers in the improved and dynamic schools are highly empowered than their counterparts in the trapped and failing schools. The teachers in the trapped and failing schools missed elements of empowerment such as decision making, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy and impact. The study further found that teacher empowerment affects school improvement significantly. It is recommended per the findings that headteachers should invest in teachers the right to participate in the determination of school goals and policies and the right to exercise professional judgement the content of the curriculum and the means of instruction.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Since the conception of education in the United States, schools have been the battlegrounds for equal opportunities among African American students. In an effort to improve educational options and achievement for such students, charter schools have emerged as a popular solution for failing schools. The literature and case study in this chapter provides a sociohistorical look at the education of African Americans and African American parents' perceptions of charter schools and their expectations that they hold for educational institutions. The level of hope that was evident from the parent narratives centered on non-academic measures such as cultural pride and caring environments and mirrored that of pre-Brown schools that served African American students. The case study does not suggest that charters are the solution to educational inequity but may serve as one promising avenue for educational reform that should be informed by culturally responsive practices that encourage collaboration between schools and African American families.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Since the conception of education in the United States, schools have been the battlegrounds for equal opportunities among African American students. In an effort to improve educational options and achievement for such students, charter schools have emerged as a popular solution for failing schools. The literature and case study in this chapter provides a sociohistorical look at the education of African Americans and African American parents' perceptions of charter schools and their expectations that they hold for educational institutions. The level of hope that was evident from the parent narratives centered on non-academic measures such as cultural pride and caring environments and mirrored that of pre-Brown schools that served African American students. The case study does not suggest that charters are the solution to educational inequity but may serve as one promising avenue for educational reform that should be informed by culturally responsive practices that encourage collaboration between schools and African American families.

Optimism, Pessimism, and Realism in Educational Leadership

Leadership has received unprecedented attention in the educational leadership literature. With only a few skeptics rolling their eyes, the importance of leaders in educational reform and school improvement goes uncontested in the 21st century while the search for effective leadership—the Holy Grail of educational effectiveness and improvement—continues. That leaders, motivated by moral purpose, bring about change, uplifting “failing” schools, is the common perception. Apart from an exceptionally small number of studies, educational leadership research has generally focused on effective leadership, the implicit assumption being that leadership, by default, is positive and leaders are always well-intended, even if not always highly effective in the execution of their responsibilities. Destructive forms of leadership that would eventually harm followers or the organization have been virtually neglected. Regardless of the silence on the dark side of leadership, however, a limited number of studies, mainly from the business field and to a much lesser extent, from the public sector and schooling, suggest that negative or even destructive forms of leadership may be more widespread than is popularly perceived. Recent portrayals of contemporary educational leadership suggest that the field needs to be re-conceptualized and recalibrated in ways that acknowledge rather than ignore leaders’ frailties and the use and abuse of power by leaders with darker dispositions. In reviewing the leadership literature, a new settlement, a rapprochement, must be found between the positives and the negatives, the transformative and the destructive, as a means of recapitulating the field with more wide-eyed and real-world characteristics and achievements, where leaders and followers alike can survive and thrive while engaged in leadership praxis for everyday life and work.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Since the conception of education in the United States, schools have been the battlegrounds for equal opportunities among African American students. In an effort to improve educational options and achievement for such students, charter schools have emerged as a popular solution for failing schools. The literature and case study in this chapter provides a sociohistorical look at the education of African Americans and African American parents' perceptions of charter schools and their expectations that they hold for educational institutions. The level of hope that was evident from the parent narratives centered on non-academic measures such as cultural pride and caring environments and mirrored that of pre-Brown schools that served African American students. The case study does not suggest that charters are the solution to educational inequity but may serve as one promising avenue for educational reform that should be informed by culturally responsive practices that encourage collaboration between schools and African American families.

Action Research, Design Thinking

Narratives of unruly Black children in failing schools often normalize hopelessness at the expense of students. Newer, sometimes silenced voices, however, can produce counter-narratives that can lead to ecological solutions for assisting traumatized students. This is a case study of the transformation of a principal who asked, “What's wrong with these children?” to an advocate whose inquiry shifted to “What happened to these children, and what must we do to help them?” With trauma awareness and behavioral management training for her staff, improvements began. The local school board cut her successes short by changing the lock on her office door on the day before teachers returned for the Fall Semester and informed her that her services were no longer needed. What is the lesson for the consultant?