Research suggests that takeovers are not a silver bullet for improving struggling school systems. State takeovers of school districts have happened in all major regions of the country but disproportionately affect some types of communities more than others. There are two main reasons states typically give for enacting takeover: low academic…

This research is situated at the nexus of race, racism, and care in education law, policy, and practice. State takeovers of schools and school districts in the United States have been rising for over thirty years, significantly increasing in the past decade. These takeovers raise questions of equity, accountability, integrity, and capability in…

After being sued for inequity and inadequacy in school funding, many states in the US have reformed their education aid formulas but have still faced many criticisms. Using Connecticut as an example, this paper shows how to design a more equitable and adequate aid formula with tools to win broad support from communities and lawmakers. It develops…

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, states have increased latitude over school improvement and accountability policies. At the same time, school takeover via state-run turnaround districts has emerged as a prominent education reform. Although policies takeover influence how teachers are prepared, supported, and evaluated, little is…

Based on a fall 2017 survey of officials from 45 state education agencies, this report highlights early state efforts to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The report highlights states' views on ESSA's shift in control from the federal government to states and school districts regarding accountability and school improvement…

The goal of this study is to simultaneously explore resource allocation across schools within large urban school districts and across all schools within major metropolitan areas that include those urban districts in the state of Texas. This study uses a three-year panel, from 2005 to 2007, for Texas elementary schools in the Houston, Dallas,…

Collective, comprehensive and cohesive are the words Gene Wilhoit uses to talk about education reform that involves multiple levels of the education system--states, districts, and schools. Today it is widely accepted that education leadership is crucial to improving student performance, and Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State…

The evolution of the federal role in education policy has entailed increasing activism in matters traditionally controlled by states and school districts. However, the expanding federal role has not resulted in a zero sum game for states and localities. Focusing on the policy-implementation process, this article examines recent state and local…

In 1997, the state of California labeled Markham Middle School as low-performing. Located in the Watts neighborhood of Southeastern Los Angeles, Markham is stuffed with over 1,500 students in just three grades, sixth-eighth. Roughly 70 percent of the students are Hispanic, and 30 percent are black. Eighty-two percent are poor. That year, the…

This quantitative study examined the effects of a New Hampshire Department of Education policy, Ed 512. This mandated state policy was designed to influence local district leadership to facilitate the development of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at the school level with the goal of improving instruction in the classroom. For this study…

This technical brief describes state-level policies and procedural requirements for guiding teacher evaluation practices at the district level in the seven states served by the Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Building on the Issues & Answers report "Examining…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore state takeover as a school reform strategy in a small rural school district. Since 1988, more than 50 U.S. school districts in 20 states have been subject to some form of state takeover. A number of factors generally contribute to a state takeover, some of which include: poor student…

When in 2006 California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked a panel of education experts to recommend an overhaul of the state's troubled public schools, observers hoped the celebrity chief executive was about to bring his unique brand of postpartisan politics to an issue that sorely needed it. However, that optimism faded when Schwarzenegger,…

Online learning and our current system of local education governance are at odds with one another, to say the least. In this paper, John Chubb examines how local school district control retards the widespread use of instructional technologies. He argues that the surest way to break down the system's inherent resistance to technology is to shift…

Of relatively minor concern in State capitols not so long ago, education is now the very heart of much legislative action. (Editor)