Grants and Contracts Details
Description
While research is beginning to emerge evaluating various turnaround policies for low performing schools,
it is premature to pass judgment as previous research suggests that reforms can take three to five years
before substantial improvements can be observed. Therefore, it is important not only to examine the initial
effects of these initiatives, but the effects as these schools mature.
For the past few years, our research team from Vanderbilt and the University of Kentucky has been
conducting research on the effects of two turnaround strategies in Tennessee, the state Achievement School
District (ASD) and local iZones. The ASD targets schools that are persistently low performing, known as
Priority Schools. These schools are then either directly run by the ASD or run by Charter Management
Organizations (CMOs), but in contrast with other similar reforms in places like New Orleans, the ASD
schools remain neighborhood schools. In addition, the state allowed a subset of priority schools to remain
under the governance of local school districts through innovation zones (iZones). These iZone schools were
managed by separate units in their local districts and are given greater autonomy over school operations
and greater resources to recruit and retain high quality teachers.
Because many states continue to adopt or are considering similar approaches (e.g., Georgia, Nevada, North
Carolina, South Carolina), we believe that our findings from our ongoing study are important. However,
the currently funded analyses will not be able to examine the effects of the ASD and iZone schools as they
mature. Therefore, we are requesting additional resources for an extension to the current to answer questions
of performance, principal quality, the effects the reforms have had on other low performing schools, and
how teacher and student mobility is similar or dissimilar to the larger charter movement in Tennessee.
In addition, with a number of researchers examining turnaround approaches across several locations (Los
Angeles, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Orleans, Rhode Island, North Carolina) the time is right to
convene researchers to synthesize the results across different locations and to facilitate a time for interacting
and developing lessons learned across the various locations, including lessons about how to effectively
evaluate turnaround initiatives.
Finally, we believe the scope of the project could be expanded a bit to broaden our understanding. For
instance, through the revised ESEA, a new set of schools are being identified as priority schools within
Tennessee. We could further examine the latest edition of these reforms on a new set of schools and
compare and contrast to the results of the ongoing analyses.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 9/13/17 → 6/30/19 |
Funding
- Laura and John Arnold Foundation: $126,066.00
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