Tennessee created the so-called “Achievement School District” in 2012, to take over schools in the lowest 5% of the state, based on test scores, and hand them over to charter operators. The head of the ASD at the time, Chris Barbic, who had run the YES Prep charter chain in Houston, promised that these low-performing schools would be in the top 20% within five years. The five-year mark is approaching, and none of the schools is in the top 25%. It is not clear that any of them have moved out of the bottom 5-10% (moving to the bottom 10% would be progress, though not much). Gary Rubinstein called ASD the “Underachievement District.” See here for his 2016 post. Barbic left before the five-year marker, and the ASD carries on. Unfortunately, despite the meager (or nil) results of the ASD, several states have created their own versions of the ASD. If it failed in Tennessee, why notcopy it in Georgia and Nevada?
The latest news from the ASD is that it is laying off 29 employees. This is not a sign of good health.
The state-run Achievement School District is losing 29 employees including 13 who are involved in the direct running of the first schools in Frayser taken over by the district in 2012.
The changes, which include another 16 positions in the central office, are the most significant change to the district for the bottom 5 percent of public schools in the state in terms of academic achievement.
All but two of the 33 schools in the ASD, including two alternative schools, are in Memphis.
As expected, management says that this move will strengthen the organization for future success. They are “right-sizing” and “streamlining” the organization for the future.
Although the ASD consists of charter schools, parents did not choose them. Their local public schools were taken over without their consent, and that takeover is certainly not school choice. Consequently the ASD has faced considerable parent and community hostility.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And in another 5 years after “streamlining”, they will still be at the bottom. And that is 1 full generation of children that have been promised a decent education and then denied. It’s no wonder that the South still has large pockets of poverty. Until state leaders decide to invest in the future (children), this will continue…. and it’s sad.
Indeed SAD and more. This is reprehensible. But then reprehensible seems to the norm in this country. Sad USA. Our founders are turning in their graves.
Much like the shooting of unarmed citizens, so often with these school reform debacles which follow one upon the heels of another, it feels as if the accepted modern-day excuse is “oh, but we didn’t mean to do any HARM.”
I deplore the misused of students standardized test scores.
But, inequality of education outcomes was far greater when the founders of our country were ruling the government and it was against the law to teach a slave to read. Women, slaves and Native Americans were left out of Jefferson’s “All men are created equal…”
And, there was no government funded education.
Today the growth in childhood poverty, coupled with the privatization of public education resulting in the de-funding of neighborhood public schools, children today are less likely to get equivalent education as provided two decades ago prior to the Neoliberal education reforms of charters, vouchers, and high stakes testing.
How are politicians and charter school operators alike? Their success is dependent on making promises they will not be held accountable.
What is seldom mentioned about targeting a group of students with low test scores is in statistics there is the concept of “regression to the mean”. Random universe of test scores the lowest scores and highest scores will move toward the mean on retesting with the same standardized test. Do nothing and retest a target of say the lowest 10% and presto improved performance of the targeted group.
With regression to the mean built into the claim that a superintendent will improve a targeted group, why wouldn’t superintendents not want to hitch their employment wagon to improving targeted students test scores?
Thank you for bringing this to light.
When teaching in the East Bronx in the 1969, my remedial-reading summer school class experienced this phenomenon (of which I took advantage).
I pretested the students on an accepted standardized test, and six weeks later I post-tested the same group. Everyone increased their score by an entire year!! You might say they had learned the test. But no, I tested the same students at the beginning of the school year in September. Lo and behold. The students’ scores returned to the original score from the beginning of the summer-school session.
Never accepted results of standardized tests again, but did participate in training teachers in test-taking skills to pass on to the students in brief lessons.
Scores on standardized tests can be somewhat reliable for large groups but not for individuals. And never valid as far as I can see.
West Coast Teacher provided example why use of standardized cannot be relied on.
But, I believe regression to the mean of standardized tests is an issue independent of his example provided by West Coast Teacher.
To deal with regression toward the mean the first test needed to have targeted say the lowest 10% tested and the second test checked to see if that 10% of lowest scores as a group increased in performance. And, 3rd testing needed to be checked as to whether that 10% group regressed toward the original mean.
Years ago, I and, my elementary school in Oakland participated in a major publishers’ experiment with performance contract calling for use of the publisher’s reading materials and the publisher was supposed to be paid for improved student reading scores.
My opinion the publisher was looking to make money on “moving” the scores of 10% lowest performing students by taking advantage that the contract didn’t account for regression to the mean.
The failure of Chris Barbic has been rewarded. Here is where he landed.
AUGUST 1, 2016 | PRESS RELEASE
Chris Barbic joins the Laura and John Arnold Foundation as a senior education fellow
HOUSTON, TX – The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) today announced that Chris Barbic has joined the Foundation as a senior education fellow and will help to lead LJAF’s efforts to improve K-12 education in the United States. Mr. Barbic is the founding superintendent of the state of Tennessee’s Achievement School District, which was established to dramatically improve student outcomes at the state’s lowest-performing schools. He is also the founder of YES Prep Public Schools, a network of free, open-enrollment public charter schools in Houston.
The press release goes on and on and on. Failure pays.
Funny how the rich people always fail up.