A growing number of states are using state-run school districts to take over and improve persistently underperforming schools. This article uses Georgia to examine the politics of state takeover. We analyze the supporting and opposing coalitions as well as the alignment between state takeover and charter schools in the campaign for the constitutional amendment to create a statewide turnaround district. Our findings show that corporate interests, the governor, and nonprofit organizations supported state takeover, whereas educators, parents, and community organizations opposed state takeover. There was bipartisan support across coalitions and a crisscrossing of interests regarding local control and the path to school improvement. There are divergent views on charter schools, with supporters of state takeover favoring charter schools.

Disparities in students’ psychosocial outcomes are an underresearched area of achievement gap research. Racial-ethnic minorities endorse a lower sense of belonging, higher impostorism scores, and decreased college adjustment at predominately White institutions relative to White students and these disparities impact their college outcomes. This study explores how peer mentorship contributes to the academic and socioemotional outcomes of a sample of Black collegians. Furthermore, the study examines whether variations in student outcomes function as a result of the type of mentorship endorsed by students. Results revealed a positive relationship between mentorship, mentorship experiences and college adjustment, and an inverse relationship with impostorism. Furthermore, students with mentors reported significantly higher belongingness and college adjustment scores compared to students with no mentors.

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Teacher turnover across the country presents a persistent and growing challenge for schools and districts, with the highest rates of turnover geographically concentrated in the American South. Research on teacher staffing and turnover problems consistently highlight two subsets of schools as struggling to attract and retain well-credentialed, effective educators—predominantly Black schools and rural schools. However, research has rarely explicitly examined the schools that meet both these criteria. We use administrative records and unique climate survey data from Georgia to examine how the intersecting roles of race, money, and school climate shape evolving teacher turnover patterns in rural schools. Findings suggest that while teacher mobility is generally less common in rural schools, considerable inequities exist within the rural space, with majority Black rural schools bearing far more of the brunt of rural teacher turnover. Among rural teachers, Black teachers have higher mobility rates—more likely to make interdistrict moves and to exit rural settings for teaching opportunities in urban and suburban contexts. However, in majority-Black rural schools, higher salaries and school climate factors, such as relational climate and parental involvement, were strong predictors of retention, even after controlling for a rich set of covariates.

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