A Think Twice Review of:

“Building the Possible: The Achievement School District’s Presentation in Milwaukee” & “The Recovery School District’s Presentation in Milwaukee”

Think Twice - Oct 08, 2013

Publisher/Think Tank - The Achievement School District (ASD) & the Recovery School District (RSD)

Author(s) - Elliot Smalley, Chief of Staff for Achievement School District Patrick Dobard, Superintendent of the Recovery School District

Portfolio districts, such as the Recovery School District (RSD) and the Achievement School District (ASD), remove schools from the governance of locally elected school boards and superintendents and place them into districts that answer to a state authority. The presenters aimed to encourage other districts to adopt such governance structures although no rigorous research has yet examined their effectiveness.

Reviewer(s) - Elizabeth DeBray, University of Georgia Huriya Jabbar, University of California Berkeley

A review of the presentations found that the presentations accurately depict the strategies employed by these two ‘districts,’ but do not address whether such strategies are effective or efficient. Neither presentation offers a sophisticated discussion of the data or the claims made. The presentations fail to provide the research based needed for policymakers.