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At Critical Moment, State-Run Achievement School District Posts Big Gains At Its Original Schools
Chalkbeat Tennessee | 7/29/15

Behind the Headline
Turnaround School Districts
Education Next | June 2015

Schools in Tennessee’s Achievement School District, a special state-run district set up to try to turn around some of the state’s lowest-performing schools, achieved test score gains greater than the state average this year.

Grace Tatter writes

Since the ASD launched three years ago, it has been touted by policymakers in Tennessee and across the country as a promising approach for states looking to improve their lowest-performing schools — and criticized by some local educators and communities for not showing results quickly enough.

ASD officials and state officials said Wednesday that the new scores suggest that the district’s approach takes time to bear fruit.

Chris Barbic, the founding superintendent of the Achievement School District, announced earlier this month that he would be resigning at the end of the year.

An article about Tennessee’s Achievement School District and other state-run turnaround districts, “Turnaround School Districts: States try managing lowest performing schools,” by Nelson Smith, was published earlier this year by Education Next.

-Education Next