Can States Sustain and Replicate School District Improvement? Evidence from Massachusetts on Multilevel Governance

Limited scholarship has examined school districtwide turnaround reforms beyond the first few years of implementation or efforts to replicate successes in new contexts. We studied Massachusetts, home to a state takeover of the Lawrence school district that led to academic gains in early reform years and where state leaders attempted to replicate this success in three additional communities. We used statewide student-level data (2006–7 to 2018–19) and event study methods to estimate medium-term impacts on student outcomes. We found that improvements were largely sustained in Lawrence. We observed evidence of successful replication in the Springfield Empowerment Zone but not Holyoke or Southbridge. Cases with positive outcomes struck a unique balance between both state and local decision-making authority, suggesting that multilevel governance can provide one pathway for effective state-led school district improvement.