Sustainability and Maturation of School Turnaround: A Multi-Year Evaluation of Tennessee’s Achievement School District and Local Innovation Zones

Recent federal initiatives have made large investments in reforms to improve low-performing schools, but evaluations of these reforms have almost exclusively examined their effects in the short term. In this study, we expand the turnaround literature by examining the maturation and sustainability of Tennessee’s Achievement School District (ASD) and local Innovation Zones (iZones). Leveraging six years of continuous reforms, we find null effects on student achievement in ASD schools across all years and cohorts. In iZone schools, we find positive effects, but these effects are concentrated in the first two cohorts, suggesting diminished improvement in later years. We provide further insights into these results by examining principal and teacher staffing and find that ASD schools had high staff turnover in every cohort, while iZone schools faced high staff turnover in its latest, and lowest-performing cohort. These findings suggest linkages between staff stability and reform effectiveness.

近期联邦层面推出的改革举措已投入巨额资金，用于改善办学绩效不佳的学校，但针对此类改革的评估几乎仅聚焦于其短期效应。本研究通过考察田纳西州绩效学区（Achievement School District, ASD）与地方创新区（Innovation Zones, iZones）改革的深化进程与可持续性，拓展了学校转型改革领域的研究文献。借助六年持续推进的改革实践数据，我们发现，绩效学区（ASD）下辖学校的学生学业表现在所有年度与同期入学群（cohort）中均呈现零效应。而地方创新区（iZones）下辖学校则观测到积极的改革效应，但此类效应仅集中于前两批同期入学群，这表明后续年度的改革成效出现了衰减。我们通过考察校长与教师的人员配置情况，为上述研究结果提供了进一步的解读视角：绩效学区（ASD）下辖学校的所有同期入学群均面临较高的人员流动率，而地方创新区（iZones）下辖学校仅在最新一批且办学绩效最差的同期入学群中出现了高人员流动问题。上述研究结果表明，人员稳定性与改革成效之间存在关联。