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Author: Wiley Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages :
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Background: School accountability as a reform strategy shows that states and cities are paving the way for school district takeovers across America. Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to explore state and federal policies that drive school closures in Texas and to explore the effects of school closures using the case of one Texas school district. This research is based on the mindset that by holding school districts accountable for student performance, low performing districts should be closed and taken over by the state. When schools are closed or taken over, the assumption is that student performance will increase. Methods: Mixed methods research was used for this study. Policy research methods were used to identify federal and state school closure policies. Using quantitative research methods, archival Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) and Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR) data were gathered to explore the effects of school closures on student academic performance. Qualitative methods were used to conduct interviews with a sample of administrators with knowledge of district takeovers. Results: The results showed that poor school governance, fiscal irresponsibility, and poor academic performance led to the target school district’s takeover by the state. The findings also suggested that while a school district may be taken over for not meeting performance standards or failing to meet accreditation status, student performance was only moderately affected by the takeover. Specifically, little change in student performance over time was noted for the target high school in this project. Conclusion: The academic performance of the targeted school district that closed and merged with another school district due to performance issues did not perform significantly higher when compared to pre and post merger data. While district closure may help resolve governance issues, it does not necessarily improve a school’s academic performance.
Author: Wiley Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Background: School accountability as a reform strategy shows that states and cities are paving the way for school district takeovers across America. Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to explore state and federal policies that drive school closures in Texas and to explore the effects of school closures using the case of one Texas school district. This research is based on the mindset that by holding school districts accountable for student performance, low performing districts should be closed and taken over by the state. When schools are closed or taken over, the assumption is that student performance will increase. Methods: Mixed methods research was used for this study. Policy research methods were used to identify federal and state school closure policies. Using quantitative research methods, archival Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) and Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR) data were gathered to explore the effects of school closures on student academic performance. Qualitative methods were used to conduct interviews with a sample of administrators with knowledge of district takeovers. Results: The results showed that poor school governance, fiscal irresponsibility, and poor academic performance led to the target school district’s takeover by the state. The findings also suggested that while a school district may be taken over for not meeting performance standards or failing to meet accreditation status, student performance was only moderately affected by the takeover. Specifically, little change in student performance over time was noted for the target high school in this project. Conclusion: The academic performance of the targeted school district that closed and merged with another school district due to performance issues did not perform significantly higher when compared to pre and post merger data. While district closure may help resolve governance issues, it does not necessarily improve a school’s academic performance.
Author: Domingo Morel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190678976
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
State takeovers of local governments have garnered national attention of late, particularly following the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. In most U.S. cities, local governments are responsible for decisions concerning matters such as the local water supply and school affairs. However, once a state takes over, this decision-making capability is shuttled. Despite the widespread attention that takeovers in Flint and Detroit have gained, we know little about how such takeovers--a policy option that has been in use since the 1980s--affect political power in local communities. By focusing on takeovers of local school districts, this book offers the first systematic study of state takeovers of local governments. Although many major U.S. cities have experienced state takeovers of their local school districts, we know little about the political causes and consequences of takeovers. Complicating this phenomenon are the justifications for state takeokers; while they are assumedly based on concerns with poor academic performance, questions of race and political power play a critical role in the takeover of local school districts. However, Domingo Morel brings clarity to these questions and limitations--he examines the factors that contribute to state takeovers as well as the effects and political implications of takeovers on racialized communities, the communities most often affected by them. Morel both lays out the conditions under which the policy will disempower or empower racial and ethnic minority populations, and expands our understanding of urban politics. Morel argues that state interventions are a part of the new normal for cities and offers a novel theoretical framework for understanding the presence of the state in America's urban areas. The book is built around an original study of nearly 1000 school districts, including every school district that has been taken over by their respective state, and a powerful case study of Newark, New Jersey.
Author: Paula Allen Vanderford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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The performance of the nation‟s public schools continues to be a concern of policymakers, educators, and parents. Stakeholders cite the lack of academic achievement, disruptive student behavior, and failure to provide students with a safe and orderly school environment as evidence of being unsuccessful. To ensure school districts, schools, administrators, teachers, and students meet acceptable performance standards, states are implementing a variety of accountability policies. Two of the more controversial accountability approaches are state takeovers of local school districts and the reconstitution of schools. At least 29 states have enacted policies that allow the takeover of a school district. Changes in statute during the 1991 legislative session authorized the first takeover (conservatorship) section of the law in the state of Mississippi. Sections 37-17-6 and 37-17-7 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, as amended, describes the rationale for the initiation of the takeover process. To date, the Commission on School Accreditation (CSA) and the State Board of Education (SBE) have requested the Governor declare a state of emergency on 13 occasions in 12 Mississippi school districts. The purpose of this study was to determine what led to the state takeover of Sunflower County School District (SCSD), determine the takeover process used by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), and make recommendations to the MDE that will improve the sustainability of the success of the state takeover process after the conservator is removed from the district and the district regains control. The findings presented in this study are based on the analysis of data collected during the on-site evaluation of the school district. The SCSD was not fully compliant with any one of the 37 process standards as published in the Mississippi Public School Accountability Standards, 2009. Governor Haley Barbour signed a Proclamation in response to the Resolutions of the CSA and the SBE. The Proclamation declared that a state of emergency did exist in the SCSD that jeopardized the safety, security, and educational interests of the students enrolled in that district. The state of emergency was related to serious violations of accreditation standards, state law, and federal law.
Author: Kaitlin Pennington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 10
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Over the past few decades, many state departments of education have taken over low-performing schools or districts as a school turnaround strategy. Recently, that strategy has shifted to creating new districts--managed by the state--that include schools and parts of districts that face challenges in performance. The governance structure brings schools together based on similar needs, rather than on geographic proximity. This new state takeover strategy varies in terms of the level of state control and local influence, and its success has been mixed or cannot yet be fully measured. Nonetheless, it has sparked new thinking and innovation in states and districts throughout the United States. Schools or districts taken over by state departments of education operate under a governance structure that grants them freedom from some of the restrictions placed on typical U.S. school districts. This freedom has allowed school and district leaders in state takeover districts to experiment with everything from school staffing, to the school calendar, to curriculum and lesson planning. This issue brief focuses on another area of innovation for state takeover schools and districts--teacher professional development. As a growing body of evidence points to the overriding importance of teachers in promoting student achievement, professional development that supports teachers in meaningful ways has also become a hot topic in policymaking circles at the district, state, and federal levels. Yet ensuring that teachers receive effective professional development with the resources available is a challenge all districts face, and there is a long history of states and districts using funds ineffectively in this area. Because state takeover districts are given the opportunity to rethink district policies and practices, often with new leadership in place, this brief takes a closer look at how several state takeover districts govern teacher professional development. A close look at state takeover districts in Louisiana, Michigan, and Tennessee reveals the following trends in the governance of teacher professional development: (1) complete autonomy for charter schools; (2) partnerships with outside service providers; and (3) connecting teacher evaluation and professional development. Lessons learned from the innovation in these districts could influence professional-development spending and practices in districts throughout the United States. While it is too soon to tell if the professional-development governance systems in state takeover districts are effective, they are worth noting--if for no other reason than that they break the mold. Contains endnotes.
Author: James D. Troutman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate federal and state accountability policies and the relation between school district accountability and school district resources. No Child Left Behind (2001) (NCLB) and Public Law 107-110 developed a federal accountability system that basically compared historically marginalized students with affluent students (Mintrop & Trujillo, 2005). Therefore, NCLB sets high achievement rates equal to the ability of affluent students (Mintrop & Trujillo, 2005). In addition, NCLB required State Education Agencies (SEA’s) to develop a state plan with standardized assessments as in the case for the North Forest Independent School District and other unacceptable school districts taken over by the Texas Education Agency. The study answered the following two research questions: 1. How are federal and state school and district accountability policies defined? 2. What is the relation between school district accreditation and school district resources? During the process of answering questions one and two, the relation between school district accountability and student economic backgrounds emerged as an important finding. Chapter four added the following research questions: 3. What is the relation between school district accountability and economically disadvantaged students? 4. What are the relation s between school district accountability and the enrollment percentage of race? a. African American b. Hispanic c. White To answer the first research question a literature review was conducted on federal and state accountability policy theory. The review of federal policy focused on the No Child Left Behind used to define federal accountability policy and the effects of federal policy on school takeovers (Elmore, 2010, 1996; Fowler, 2008; Fuhrman, 1999; Garfield, Garfield, & Willardson, 2003; Kingdon, 2011; O’Day, 2002; Public Law 107-110; Wirt & Kirst, 2009). The literature on state school accountability policy was reviewed to define state accountability policy and the effects of state accountability policy on school closures (TEC 39, 2011). The answer to the first research question lies in the framework and a timetable for federal school accountability polices that were developed. However, state policies are based on federal accountability policies requiring states to develop state assessment instruments (NCLB, 2011); consequently state accountability polices were grounded in the Texas Education Code, Chapter 39 (TEC). To answer research question two, correlational methods were used to identify the relation between school district accountability and school district resources. In addition, the relation s between school district accountability and student economic backgrounds and school district accountability and race were explored Archival data for Texas accountability were retrieved from the Texas Education Agency Accountability Rating System (AEIS). School district resource data were retrieved from the Texas Education Agency School Finance Reports and Data. Correlational analyses were conducted between the 45 Texas Exemplary school districts and the 50 Texas Academically Unacceptable school districts. Correlational relations were measured for accountability ratings and Weighted Average Daily Attendance (WADA), accountability ratings and the percentage of disadvantaged students, and accountability ratings and race. The most significant relation found was a -0.745 between the accountability ratings and economically disadvantaged students. Generally, the findings may imply that poverty continues to be the major source of the achievement gap as measured by school district accountability ratings.
Author: Francisco Rodriguez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Author: D'Ann Mazzocca
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education and state
Languages : en
Pages :
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Discusses whether the education commissioner has the authority to take control of the management of a school district.
Author: William G. Howell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815797699
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 366
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School boards are fighting for their survival. Almost everything that they do is subject to regulations handed down from city councils, state boards of education, legislatures, and courts. As recent mayoral and state takeovers in such cities as Baltimore, Chicago, and New York make abundantly clear, school boards that do not fulfill the expectations of other political players may be stripped of what few independent powers they still retain. Teachers unions exert growing influence over board decision-making processes. And with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government has aggressively inserted itself into matters of local education governance. B esieged is the first full-length volume in many years to systematically examine the politics that surround school boards. A group of highly renowned scholars, relying on both careful case studies and quantitative analyses, examine how school boards fare when they interact with their political superiors, teachers unions, and the public. For the most part, the picture that emerges is sobering: while school boards perform certain administrative functions quite well, the political pressures they face undermine their capacity to institute the wide-ranging school reforms that many voters and local leaders are currently demanding.
Author: Mary L. Mason
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 22
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State takeovers were an infrequently applied strategy to address the problems of financially and academically troubled schools for many decades. Although 23 states had the right to take over individual schools and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) required states to address persistently low-achieving schools, only five states had exercised their power by 2005. By 2006, a new state takeover model had emerged in Louisiana. Following Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, state legislation adopted in November 2005 brought the majority of the city's public schools under state Recovery School District (RSD) jurisdiction. Since 2006, the RSD has moved aggressively towards creating a portfolio management model by authorizing numerous charter management organizations (CMOs) to operate its schools. The opportunity for a more extensive state role in taking over troubled schools grew further with the announcement of the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) program in 2009. RTTT required states to develop plans to turn around their lowest achieving schools. In this report, the authors examine how Michigan and Tennessee have developed and implemented plans for school turnaround districts partly inspired by Louisiana's RSD. The comparative case studies focus on Michigan's policies and involvement in Detroit schools through the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) and Tennessee's policies and involvement in Memphis schools through the Achievement School District (ASD). Although state-level, philanthropic, and charter school leaders in both states initially drew upon the RSD model, Michigan and Tennessee have diverged from the RSD--and from one another--in many respects. These differences highlight some challenges to replicating the RSD in other contexts and, more generally, raise questions about school turnarounds primarily led by networks of outside actors. The authors examine divergence in state legislation and leadership, resources (federal and philanthropic), engagement with charter schools, and district-level leadership. The EAA and ASD have faced additional challenges due to their policy and political contexts, including a city-county merger in Memphis and an ongoing fiscal crisis in Detroit. Local school leaders in both cities have also developed their own reform plans, and may be reluctant to expend political capital on controversial state-led efforts. The analysis sheds light on whether outside investment and leadership can spur sustainable reforms in urban districts. A table comparing the ASD and EAA is appended.
Author: Patricia Cahape Hammer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education and state
Languages : en
Pages : 8
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