The Hechinger Report – Emmanuel Felton
“This is some of the hardest work in education. That was the gist of education reform wunderkind Chris Barbic’s July open letter announcing that he was stepping down as superintendent of Tennessee’s Achievement School District, the state-run district charged with turning around the state’s worst schools. In that letter, Barbic said that he had discovered it was “much harder” to fix existing schools than to start up new ones, as he did running YES Prep, a highly successful charter school network. Barbic’s resignation comes as legislators in states across the country — including Pennsylvania and Georgia — consider creating similar special districts for their worst schools. So-called turnaround districts are already up and running in three states: Louisiana, Michigan and Tennessee. They share many strategies: converting some schools into charters; replacing teachers and administrators; giving staff more freedom when it comes to things like curriculum, hiring and budgeting; and, in some cases, pumping in more money.”(more)