What Is the Impact of a School District?
What Is the Impact of a School District? by Eric Lerum
Do school districts matter?
The Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institute released an interesting report today that asks, and attempts to answer, this very question.
It’s an important question. The authors — Grover Whitehurst, Matthew Chingos, and Michael Gallaher — note that leaders of school districts soak up more than their share of the spotlight when it comes to education reform. And they’re compensated well to boot. As a result, one might expect that when it comes to raising student achievement, school districts and their leaders are a pretty big deal.
The findings?
For the Brookings authors, the conclusion is, “Yes, but other factors matter more and additional study is needed.” Districts do have a significant impact on student achievement. What we still don’t know, however, is