Date of Award
5-31-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Timberly Baker
Second Advisor
Corey McKenna
Committee Members
Nicole Covey
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2023 T45
Abstract
Memphis, Tennessee leans on two radical approaches to take responsibility for their most underperforming schools and turn them around. The Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) is the state’s approach to school reform and turnaround, while the local school district elected to create an Innovation Zone (iZone) to improve schools and achieve school turnaround locally. These efforts employ strategies and approaches as outlined and defined in national and state turnaround policies. The relationship between these interventions and school improvement has not always shown a positive correlation. Students throughout the school district, especially those in historically low-performing neighborhoods and school communities of Memphis are greatly impacted along with the teachers who also risk being displaced if the turnaround district fails to make substantial improvement over a short period of time. The qualitative case study examined the school improvement efforts in predominantly Black high schools within iZone using a single case study approach to explore the immediate impact of the district from the perspective of the educators who are tasked with improving academic outcomes at a priority school. The study aimed to identify approaches that the iZone and school leaders take to improve schools that are outside of normative practice, and to explore teachers’ perceptions of iii these approaches and how they impact their working conditions positively or negatively. The study uses institutional theory (Hanson, 2001; Huerta et al., 2009) to explore logics of the turnaround district that steer the work of the school leaders, and the sense-making approach (Coburn, 2001; Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017; Ravindran, 2021; Weick, 1995; Weick et al., 2005) to examine how teachers make meaning and adapt to the managerial and institutional changes. The data was collected through qualitative methods, including interviews and a focus group meeting. Results showed that the pressures placed on this environment and the governance structure does contribute to approaches that a turnaround district may take to reform schools while teacher perception and sense?making throughout the turnaround process can influence the school environment and potentially the success of the turnaround. Results from the analysis revealed that teachers participating in school turnaround through the iZone district in the Frayser community felt supported, a sense of urgency, and some uneasiness upon the initial implementation of the turnaround approaches. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research were identified. Keywords: ASD, charter school, iZone, priority school, turnaround
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Thigpen, Edrika S., "Reshaping Education in Memphis: A Single Case Study of Turnaround Districts in An Inner-City Neighborhood" (2023). Student Theses and Dissertations. 201.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/201
