The second phase of Greg Abbott’s “Educating Texans” plan calls for the creation of a Texas Achievement School District (ASD), which is an innovative approach to efficiently improve poorly performing schools. Under an ASD, the worst-performing schools in Texas would be placed under temporary management by a team of leaders who specialize in improving failing schools.
Similar approaches have been adopted around the country, including in Tennessee, where it has had a profound impact on the public school system.
In an op-ed for the Houston Chronicle, Tennessee ASD superintendent Chris Barbic, who was also founder and leader of YES Prep in Houston for nearly 15 years, detailed the great strides ASDs have made in Tennessee and the potential they have to improve schools in Texas.
Over the past two years, we have learned a great deal about what it takes to make an achievement school district work. A nimble and responsive governance structure is most important. In Tennessee, the ASD superintendent reports directly to the state’s commissioner of education. If an achievement school district is created to exist in a bureaucracy more cumbersome than the district and schools it is trying to fix, it will never work.
Next, it is critical that an achievement school district have charter-authorizing power. The ability to authorize charters leverages the great public charters already in Texas and provides them an opportunity to serve the highest-need kids.
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I encourage state education leaders to think about our lessons learned these past two years in Tennessee as they head into the next legislative session and debate the creation of a Texas achievement school district.
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Students in Texas deserve better, and I hope state leaders have the will and power to create bold solutions that will give students the opportunity to pursue their dreams and gain the knowledge to grow up and be productive Texans.
No child deserves to be stuck in a failing school – Greg Abbott’s plan will ensure students, parents and teachers get the help they need to make Texas first in the nation in education; our children deserve nothing less.
Learn more about Greg Abbott’s Educating Texans plan here:
