02/08/2016

WASHINGTON — Today, the Center for Popular Democracy released a report, State Takeovers of Low-Performing Schools: A Record of Academic Failure, Financial Mismanagement, & Student Harm, showing that all statewide takeovers of low-performing schools have failed to achieve positive results and have instead resulted in harm to students and communities.

Kyle Serrette, the Director of Education Justice at Center for Popular Democracy, released the following statement:

“An education strategy that consistently has not been able to achieve its intended results doesn’t make sense.  The data is clear: state takeovers harm students, families, and communities.”

Despite the poor track record of statewide school takeovers, lawmakers in seven states -- Wisconsin, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Utah -- have introduced bills to expand the number of takeover districts in 2016, following 2015, when nine states introduced legislation to create statewide takeover districts: Arkansas, Georgia, Nevada, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.

In 2003, Louisiana established the “Recovery School District,” the first statewide district of this kind. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the state rapidly expanded its takeover district. Tennessee followed suit, creating its “Achievement School District” in 2010 and expanding it in 2012. Finally, Michigan established its “Education Achievement Authority” in 2013, explicitly modeling it on the Louisiana precedent.

• Louisiana Recovery School District: In 2014, there were 136 charter schools operating in Louisiana, attended by over 65,000 students. Of those schools, which accounted for 21,000 students, 41 percent, received a letter grade of D, F, or T (Transitional School), with a School Performance Score (SPS) below 69.1. Only 9 percent of Louisiana’s charter schools, enrolling just 8,700 students, received the letter grade A.
• Tennessee Achievement School District: Only six out of the 17 takeover schools had moved out of the bottom performance decile by the end of the 2013-2014 school year. 2015 was the first year that statewide test scores in the takeover schools had improved after two years of either zero gains or actual decline. Reading scores in takeover schools have been consistently lower than pre-takeover levels all three years of the ASD, down over four percentage points in 2015.
• Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority: The chancellor of Michigan’s EAA, Veronica Conforme, recently admitted that, “three years into this [the EAA], achievement hasn't improved.” In fact, it has actually set students back rather than delivering positive educational outcomes. Between 2012 and 2013, 36 percent of students in EAA schools saw declines in their performance on Michigan’s MEAP mathematics tests, and another 43 percent saw no improvement. Over the same time period, 36 percent of EAA students also saw declines in MEAP reading performance, with another 26 percent showing no improvement. Even worse, nearly half (46 percent) of students who had previously been proficient in the MEAP mathematics exam saw significant declines in their performance. Among these previously proficient students in the EAA, 82 percent of previously proficient students saw declines in their math test performance and 11 percent saw no change.

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www.populardemocracy.org

The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda.

Media Contact:

Asya Pikovsky, apikovsky@populardemocracy.org, 207-522-2442

Anita Jain, ajain@populardemocracy.org, 347-636-9761