Local Dilemmas of School Improvement under ESSA

• In Event: The Intersection of K-12 School Accountability and Human Capital

Abstract

The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) calls for school districts to collaborate with local stakeholders to design evidence-based interventions for improving the lowest performing schools, designated as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI). An underlying assumption is that districts are more informed and capable of leading school improvement than federal and state authorities. However, local actors may not have the knowledge, expertise or capacity to improve schools on their own. Furthermore, relaxing control over school accountability and improvement processes could exacerbate gaps in school quality and educational inequities. These concerns are especially serious for CSI schools since the right approach for rapidly improving persistently low-performing schools remains elusive. In this paper, we describe how district leaders in a large school district in the Southeast region of the United States approached CSI school improvement under ESSA. This district is located in a state that has granted its school districts substantial discretion in designing evidence-based strategies for improving CSI schools while providing them with limited guidance or technical assistance. 

Specifically, we examine how district leaders use principal replacement – a common strategy for school turnaround –  as a strategy for CSI school improvement and how dilemmas are approached surrounding this strategy. Defining dilemmas as “persistent and unresolved tensions stemming from differing values and beliefs within an organization” (Ogawa et al., 1999), we ask: 1) What are the dilemmas of principal replacement in CMS’ CSI initiative? 2) How do differing perspectives or values across district and school-level actors give rise to these dilemmas? How do district leaders’ response to these dilemmas inform ongoing tensions or challenges with improving CSI schools?

This study utilizes a multi-level case study research design to examine district and local-level dilemmas across CSI schools. We triangulate data by sourcing public documents and interviews with 36 district leaders, central office administrators, and CSI school principals between October 2022 and June 2025. Data analysis will be completed in Summer 2025 and will consist of inductive and deductive analysis of interview transcripts and documents, multi-level comparisons of findings, and member checking of findings with district partners. 

We find two distinct dilemmas in the principal replacement strategy for school turnaround: the dilemma of organizational boundaries and the dilemma of hierarchy. First, district leaders prioritize research-based evidence, prior experiences with turnaround initiatives, and leaders’ wisdom, above the perspectives of school leaders, families, and the local community. Second, tensions around organizational boundaries influenced a dilemma of hierarchy because the district implemented a decentralized approach to school improvement despite calls for a more systematic approach. Our findings shed light on the complexity of local control of school improvement under ESSA, and can be informative for districts with large numbers of CSI schools that are operating with limited oversight or input from state authorities. 

Authors

• Ayesha K Hashim, NWEA
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Ogechi Irondi, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Christy Batts, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author

• Lam D Pham, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author