The New, But Not Necessarily Improved, Tennessee ASD
Of all the failed experiments conducted on families and children by the modern education reformers, perhaps the biggest failure is Tennessee’s Achievement School District (ASD).
Started in 2011 by TFAer and YES Prep Charter chain founder Chris Barbic, hired by then Tennessee commissioner of education, former TFA VP, and ex-husband of Michelle Rhee, herself, Kevin Huffman, the Tennessee ASD was funded by Arne Duncan’s Race To The Top money.
The promise of the ASD was that they would take over schools in the bottom 5% and convert them to charter schools and, within five years, move them from the bottom 5% to the top 25% within five years.
Here was their original mission from their website:
After two years, they were claiming they were on schedule to accomplish this with two of the original six schools. The ASD quickly grew to about 30 schools. But after four years it was clear that not only would none of the original ASD schools be in the top 25% after five years, but that they would be lucky if any of them catapulted out of the bottom 5%. Chris Barbic resigned, got inducted into Chiefs For Change, and got a job as an education advisor to the Arnold Foundation. A new superintendent came in, she resigned, also got inducted into Chiefs for Change, and finally, less than a year ago, another new superintendent came in. The ASD, by really any metric, was a hundred million dollar fiasco. CONTINUE READING: The New, But Not Necessarily Improved, Tennessee ASD | Gary Rubinstein's Blog