Dr. Joshua Glazer partnered with GSEHD researcher Cori Egan, GSEHD alumna Joelle Deleveaux (master's, Education Policy), and colleagues from other universities and organizations to conduct a three-year research project exploring one county's attempt to improve the lowest performing schools in Tennessee. Their work was supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.
Read the full report: District-led School Turnaround: Aiming for Ambitious and Equitable Instruction in Shelby County’s iZone
The following overview of the project provides a summary of the report's executive summary:
The Shelby County iZone is a district-led effort to dramatically improve, or “turn around,” 23 of the lowest performing schools in Tennessee. Each of the schools are located within Memphis city limits (in Shelby County). This school district, the 15th largest in the United States, serves communities that are beset by intergenerational poverty, social isolation, and decades of neglect. The schools targeted by iZone performed in the bottom 5% on state achievement tests. More than 95% of students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. As daunting as these statistics are, they scarcely capture the magnitude of the challenges that confront the school leaders, teachers, and district administrators who have assumed responsibility for improving these schools.
A different group of researchers conducted an evaluation of the program in 2015 and found that, despite circumstances that have proved insurmountable to many past reform efforts, iZone schools made significant gains in performance in both math and English language arts (ELA). In fact, they outpaced the Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) from 2012-13 to 2014-15. For reference, the Tennessee ASD was a more radical initiative centered on state takeover of struggling schools, a majority also located in Memphis, that included new governance arrangements, and a large role for charter management organizations.
It was determined that the iZone initiative had statistically significant and meaningful positive effects on student achievement across all subjects, especially in math and science. Dr. Glazer and his team conducted a multi-year research project that sought to understand the iZone’s underlying strategy and the dynamics of implementation as teachers and leaders attempted to maintain growth, expand to more schools, and at the same time move toward more ambitious practices. Their research focused predominantly on math instruction and included a combination of surveys as well as interviews, observations, and focus groups. The group studied five case study schools, three elementary and two high schools.
Their findings have broader implications for policymakers, educators, and reformers nationwide seeking to tackle similar challenges. The research suggests that, despite the national attention given to experiments like the ASD, the iZone model might be the key to discovering the path to reform.
The report further details the strategies developed in iZone, feedback garnered through focus groups, key takeaways and recommendations, and more.