Dr. Joshua Glazer, Associate Professor of Education Policy at the GW Graduation School of Education and Human Development, was interviewed for the GW Today article, "GSEHD Researcher Studies District-Led School Turnaround Initiative."
Per the article:
Following initial success of noticeably improving student achievement in 11 low-performing schools in Tennessee’s largest county and public-school district, the Shelby County Innovation Zone (iZone) initiative, a district-led effort to reform schools that performed in the bottom 5 percent on state achievement tests, faced new challenges as it took on additional schools.
The program, which began in 2012 and has consistently outpaced a state-run effort, grew to 23 schools—all within the Memphis city limits—by 2017. At the same time, Tennessee adopted a more rigorous set of state assessment standards.
Faced with these new challenges, a team of researchers led by Joshua Glazer, an associate professor at the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, examined iZone strategies for the past three years to make recommendations on how the program might overcome the twin challenges of growth and the adoption of a more rigorous set of state assessment standards.
The GW Today team poses questions to Dr. Glazer about his findings, including: What was the iZone’s initial strategy to improve schools? As the initiative scaled and more schools joined the iZone, what challenges did it face? and How can the findings from your studies of the Tennessee system be applied to low-performing schools in other jurisdictions?