District-led School Turnaround: Aiming for Ambitious and Equitable Instruction in Shelby County’s iZone

Abstract

This report presents the findings of a multi-year research project that sought to understand the iZone’s underlying strategy and the dynamics of implementation as teachers and leaders attempted to maintain growth, expand to more schools, and at the same time, move toward more ambitious practices. Our research focused predominantly on math instruction and included a combination of surveys as well as interviews, observations, and focus groups in five case study schools (three elementary and two high schools). The results are particularly germane because, despite the national attention given to experiments like the ASD, the likeliest path to reforming most of the country’s most under-performing schools goes through traditional urban districts like Shelby County. For this reason, our analysis has implications not just for the iZone, but also for policymakers, educators, and reformers across the country seeking to tackle similar challenges.

Suggested Citation

Glazer, J.L., Massell, D., Lenhoff, S.W., Larbi-Cherif, A., Egan, C., Taylor, J.E., Ison, A., Deleveaux, J., & Millington, Z. (2020). District-led School Turnaround: Aiming for Ambitious and Equitable Instruction in Shelby County’s iZone. (Tennessee Education Research Alliance Working Paper No. 2020-02).