"This Is the Big Leagues": Charter-Led Turnaround in a Noncharter World

• In Event: 41.083 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 41.083-8 - The Role of Teachers and Leaders in School Choice Policy

Abstract

Charter management organizations have grown to approximately 6 percent of schools nationally, but have often been reluctant to take on the task of school turnaround. Turnaround entails conditions that are fundamentally different from charters’ usual circumstance. The Tennessee Achievement School District, a state-run district launched in 2011, sought to create a hospitable environment and change this dynamic to improve outcomes in chronically low-performing schools. This paper examines that effort and the work of CMOs as they moved into this new microclimate of American education. We look at the challenges this environment created, and how it interacted to impact charter designs.

Authors

• Diane Massell, Consortium for Policy Research in Education

• Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University

• Matthew R. Malone, The George Washington University