Lone Star Governance (LSG), a governance model rooted in school board best practices, was developed for Texas school board trustees and their superintendent to improve student outcomes (Crabill, 2017). This phenomenological study investigated school board members' perceptions compared to the perceptions of superintendents regarding the LSG…

State takeovers of struggling school systems represent some of the most contentious policy decisions in education. The transfer of decision-making power from a locally elected school board to the state is often undertaken with the goal of dramatically improving student academic achievement in districts that have been persistently low performing…

School leadership ranks among the most influential factors in student learning. Yet, principals contend with complex challenges every day, including teacher shortages, student well-being and safety concerns, resource constraints, and much more. It's no surprise they are reporting unprecedented levels of job-related stress. To position principals…

Over the past three decades, reformers have championed approaches to improving schools that have included state takeovers, school closures, and firing teachers. Despite the prevalence of these policies, these reform efforts have failed to produce strong systems of public education. This article examines Union City schools in New Jersey (USA), a…

This study looks at what precipitates the state takeover of a public school system and the impact of a takeover. The East St. Louis School District 189 was taken over by the State of Illinois in 1994 and then a second time in 2012. One of the research questions of this study asked what caused the second state takeover of the school district. The…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) requires each State to establish a methodology for identifying schools for support and improvement, based on data from the statewide system of annual meaningful differentiation. This guidance is designed to support State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requires states to have statewide accountability systems to help provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps. These systems must meet certain federal requirements, but states have some discretion in…

Within the United States of America, a few states enacted a new educational accountability system that grades school districts and campuses that is measured by student performance. The state of Texas implemented the A-F accountability grading systems to inform the community and parents about the campuses in a simplistic layout and language. These…

Over the past 40 years, a variety of school improvement initiatives have been designed and implemented in low-performing schools across the country, mostly with disappointing results. One potential explanation for the poor track record is that school leaders have too often designed improvement strategies without taking the time to understand the…

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…

The Partnership Model for School and District Turnaround is Michigan's policy for improving student outcomes in its lowest-performing schools. In compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) identifies schools that rank in the bottom 5% of the Michigan School Index System as Partnership schools.…

This study explored the implementation of data driven decision making (DDDM) among superintendents to improve low-performing schools in the Western United States. Specifically, this study utilized the Clark and Estes (2008) Gap Analytic Conceptual Framework to understand superintendents' knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences related…

In the 2017-18 school year, the California State Board of Education rolled out a new statewide system of support for local education agencies, with the goal of moving away from punitive accountability policies toward working alongside schools and districts to respond directly to local needs and contexts. Distilling lessons from prior research,…

A growing number of states are using state-run school districts to take over and improve persistently under-performing schools. There is a need for research on the policy discourse used by educational stakeholders to support or oppose school takeover. This study uses Georgia's Opportunity School District to analyze the role of racist narratives in…

In 2018, state leaders in Maine determined that their efforts to support children and their families were hampered by the lack of coordination among key stakeholders--early education and care providers, public school educators, and health and social services providers. Addressing these challenges would require new forms of collaboration both among…