Educational System Building in the Shadow of History: Race, Control, Politics, and School Reform

• In Event: Politics, History, and Systems Improvement in 21st Century School Reforms

Abstract

Objectives: This paper explores how political legitimacy and local history shape efforts to build coherent instructional systems. It compares two Race to the Top-era initiatives in Memphis, Tennessee: the state-run, charter-focused Achievement School District (ASD), and the locally-driven Innovation Zone (iZone), housed within the district. Both systems prioritized shared instructional tools, methods, and practices but faced sharply different political contexts. The ASD was widely perceived as an out-of-state, White-led intervention, while the iZone was grounded in the local Black community. This study examines how such perceptions, rooted in Memphis’s history of racialized education struggles, shaped each system’s legitimacy and capacity to build durable education reform. We argue for a framework that sits at the intersection of system design, political context, and community memory.

Framework: To explain these contrasting receptions, we ask: What historical factors shaped the legitimacy of the ASD and iZone? Drawing on Black Memphians’ educational activism from Reconstruction through Jim Crow, desegregation, and the 21st century, we show how longstanding historical concerns informed each system’s long-term trajectory. These include:

● Who controls and funds the education of Black students?
● Who teaches Black students?
● What are Black students expected to learn?
Data & Methods: We apply these questions to data gathered over 5 years through 181 interviews with educators, system leaders, and community members involved in the ASD and iZone. Data also include extensive site observations and local archival material collected by an academic research team between 2013 and 2017. We also make extensive use of secondary materials (academic books, articles, dissertations, etc.) on the history of Black education and activism in Memphis to develop the article’s historical framework.

Summary of Findings: Public responses to the two reforms diverged sharply. Both systems ultimately sought instructional coherence and a shared vision of teaching and learning as keys to improving outcomes. Additionally, both systems faced common challenges (e.g. teacher turnover, student mobility, etc.) that, from an educational standpoint, made each system very similar. However, only the iZone had the political legitimacy to build such a system in durable ways. The ASD’s outsider status and limited community engagement hindered its efforts, while the iZone benefitted from alignment with local values, leadership, and historical memory. This legitimacy made it easier to scale and sustain coherent professional practices across schools.

Scholarly Significance: This study bridges research on system-building and instructional coherence—grounded in organizational theory and improvement science—with the politics of education, where issues of race, power, and community are central. It challenges context-neutral assumptions in school reform by showing how political legitimacy and historical memory fundamentally shape system design and implementation, while also challenging political analyses that focus on power and control absent attention to the design of educational systems. We propose a framework for reform that integrates local political terrain from the outset, not as an obstacle to manage but as essential infrastructure for lasting improvement.

Author

• William Berry, The George Washington University