In this qualitative case study, we explore the political impulses behind suburban secession from the 2013 Memphis-Shelby County merger, the largest school district consolidation in recent history. Decades removed from the Civil Rights Movement, during a period of stark inequality, colorblind law and policymaking, and a diminished understanding of…

When it comes to education, not all spending is equal. Some education dollars are spent more productively than others. In a time of lagging revenues and flat achievement in many districts, policymakers have increasingly started to pay greater attention to the question of whether education systems are getting the most out of every education dollar.…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of Arkansas and Louisiana district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics, leadership skills, and school success. A quantitative methodology was used to test the research questions prescribed in the study. Data was collected using a survey. The…

Although the school mapping restructure (SMR) program in rural China mainly aims to improve the efficiency of education, this paper aims to show that the principle of educational equity should be given more attention, as evidence suggests that some children lose the opportunity to learn at a local village and rural families have different…

Background/Context: Mayoral control of large city school districts has become the newest form of school district reorganization. Researchers have documented how real and perceived crises have propelled mayors in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington DC, amongst others, to redefine the role of board governance by situating the operations of districts…

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…

The 2013 merger of Memphis City Schools (with 103,000 students) and Shelby County Schools (with 47,000 students) was the largest school district consolidation in American history. In its first year of operation, the new Shelby County Schools (SCS) commissioned CRPE researchers to perform a critical review of the district's readiness to implement a…

This qualitative case study explores middle school instructional coach learning from problems of practice in a reforming, mid-sized, diverse school district over the course of one school year. Drawing on sociocultural learning theory, specifically the idea of learning as guided participation in culturally valued activities, this study investigates…

In November 2007, area voters approved the consolidating of four districts into the Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) intending to create an articulated pre-K-adult urban district of 27,000 students. Since the creation of TRUSD no studies have been conducted to measure the impact of the consolidation on student achievement and related…

The 1968 Spainhower Commission planned extensive changes in the organization of public education in Missouri, proposing larger, comprehensive districts throughout the state. Intended to increase efficiency and reduce inequities, its reform proposals spurred widespread opposition from both rural and suburban communities. In the suburbs hostility…

This study analyzed the plausibility of merging school districts in New York State. The study considered how consolidation impacts finance, instruction, demographics, and enrollment for 56 public schools in Nassau County of the Long Island region of New York State. It also draws comparisons for county-, township-, and regionally-based school…

This case study explored the socioeconomic integration outcomes of a central North Carolina Public School District's recent elementary level redistricting process. The district's student assignment policy seeks to balance schools in part by the socioeconomic status of students. Previous redistricting efforts used free and reduced price lunch…

Educational policy makers continue to promote non-instructional service consolidation as one method to reduce operating costs through "economies of scale". Unfortunately, there is essentially no empirical evidence on the size or source of cost savings associated with such measures. Using panel data from 2004-2010, this mixed methods…

On March 31, 2011, Governor Quinn of Illinois called for schools to consolidate in order to become more financially and administratively efficient. This call for massive school reform is not new. Although consolidation, or reducing the number of school districts to save administrative costs, seemed radical to some, the idea of sharing services to…

In Rhode Island, unless costs for education are controlled, taxpayers could face increased property taxes, increased sales tax on goods and services, and tax increases to existing fees to raise revenue (NEEP, 2010). Reducing the number of school districts was cited as the number two solution by the New England Economic Partnership in 2010 to…