This mixed-method study examines Michigan’s Partnership policy for school turnaround, which positions the district and superintendents as key policy implementation actors. We first interviewed 21 of 35 Partnership superintendents/leaders across Michigan and surveyed teachers to understand the initial response to the turnaround policy and the strategic planning process. We then used our understanding of these leaders’ responses to conduct a purposively sampled embedded multiple comparative case study of three varied districts. These case studies helped us more deeply understand and compare how districts engaged in the process of crafting coherence and school-level stakeholders’ perceptions of activities related to coherence and implementation of the reform. Based on these two levels of data collection and analysis, we found that many leaders used the opportunity to create new changes, roles, and partnerships, but the majority also symbolically adopted policy demands by aligning their turnaround plans with pre-existing efforts. Using cross-case comparisons of our three districts, we argue that some degree of strategic buffering from policy demands may be warranted, especially when districts have low capacity and face significant challenges recruiting and retaining teachers.

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data, examines the effectiveness of Michigan’s approach to school turnaround under ESSA. We find that students in turnaround schools experienced significant achievement gains in math and to a lesser extent in English language arts (ELA), with effects concentrated among the lowest achieving students. Analyses of qualitative and survey data suggest that these outcomes were influenced by state-level supports, strategic planning, the threat of accountability for continued low performance, and improved leadership quality in turnaround schools.