Circumventing Districts: How Accountability Policies Influence State Education Agencies' Relationships With Districts and Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Advancing Reform: The Role of Relationships, Networks, and Partners in District Improvement

Abstract

This research explores federal accountability policies’ role in shaping State Education Agencies’ relationships with districts and schools. Analyzing accountability documents from 2001- Present, we consider the evolution of the SEA’s role in two states – Massachusetts and Michigan. We find that while MI increasingly circumvented school districts’ authority through direct state takeover, MA enacted it more selectively and only in moderately sized districts. Perhaps one reason for this approach is the differing power dynamics in state/city relationships and that the district with the greatest concentration of underperforming schools is also the state’s political power hub (Boston). This reality and the mixed results of state takeover more generally suggests flaws the frameworks belying these policies and a need for further study.

Authors

• Jennie Weiner, University of Connecticut

• Andrew Saultz, Miami University - Oxford