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It explains how district schools gain autonomy over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting through contractual and state-law support, sometimes with nonprofit operation and accountability to improve student outcomes. 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It is supported by contractual agreements and state law to sustain the zone despite changes in district leadership.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Which districts are highlighted as vanguards of innovation zones?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"The research highlights five districts: Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, Memphis (TN), and Springfield (MA).",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How did Memphis City Schools launch the iZone and what did it target?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"In 2012, Memphis City Schools launched the iZone to turn around underperforming schools. The article notes that at the time, 69 of the 85 lowest-performing schools in Tennessee were located in Memphis.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},582399,1792209478,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":46,"preview_page_count":4},137451207643,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Proving What’s Possible  \nShelby County (Memphis) Public Schools, Tennessee  \nBy Nithin Iyengar, Kate Lewis-LaMonica, and Mike Perigo  \nCollaborating to accelerate social impact October 2017  \nThis article is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focuses on anew wave of district-led “innovation zones” that holds promise to overcome the challenges of turning around failing schools and deliver significant improvements in student outcomes. This new wave provides a subset of district schools  \nwith control over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting. Such autonomy often is guaranteed by a contractual agreement and enabled by state law that can sustain the zone despite potential changes in district leadership. The schools are sometimes operated by a nonprofit that is held accountable to the school district for significant improvement in student outcomes.  \nOur research highlights the experiences of five school districts that are vanguards of this new wave of innovation zones—Chicago; Denver; Indianapolis; Memphis, TN; and Springfield, MA.  \nThese innovation zones reveal certain design features that place a focus on improving teaching and learning over multiple years—the heart of any successful turnaround effort. Specifically promising innovation zones:  \n• Set ambitious goals  \n• Guarantee autonomy  \n• Improve teaching and learning  \n• Follow the students  \n• Are sustainable, scalable, and built to last  \nThe article that follows looks in detail at one of the school districts profiled in the Bridgespan report A New Wave of District Innovation Zones: A Promising Means of Increasing Rates of Economic Mobility.  \nCover photo: Cherokee Elementary School  \nIn 2012, Memphis City Schools (which merged with surrounding Shelby County Public Schools the following year) launched the iZone to turn around underperforming schools. At the time, 69 of the 85 lowest-performing schools in the state of Tennessee were located in Memphis. Unlike the majority of district-led efforts to turnaround schools, the iZone in Memphis has produced strong results, gaining national attention in the process.  \nAsked to characterize the iZone’s primary strength, Shelby County Chief of Schools Sharon Griffin put it this way in a May 2016 interview with Chalkbeat: “First I have to say it’s attitude. You’ve got to believe. And if you don’t believe it’s possible, chances are you’re probably right. I have an unwavering belief that this is possible.”1 For the past five years, Griffin has been proving the possible for schools historically ranked at the bottom in her state.  \nThe Context  \nMemphis, with roughly 655,000 residents, is one of the largest cities in Tennessee. Located  \non the banks of the Mississippi, it has long been a hub of commerce and today is home to three Fortune 500 companies: FedEx, International Paper, and AutoZone. It is also the home of founders and pioneers of various American musical genres, including soul and blues. In 2013, the Shelby County and Memphis school districts merged in what was described atthe time as largest and most complex school district merger in US history.2 Today, Shelby  \n‘‘First I have to say it’s attitude.  \nYou’ve got to believe. And if you don’t believe it’s possible, chances are you’re probably right. I have an unwavering belief that this is possible.’’  \nDR. SHARON GRIFFIN, CHIEF OF SCHOOLS, SHELBY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS  \nCounty Public Schools comprise the nation’s 21st-largest school district,3 serving just over 100,000 students and employing 6,800 teachers across 207 schools. Three-quarters of  \n1 Laura Faith Kebede, “iZone chief Sharon Griffin on fixing Memphis’ most challenging schools,” Chalkbeat, May, 2, 2016, [http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2016/05/02/izone-chief-sharon-griffin-on-fixing-memphis](http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2016/05/02/izone-chief-sharon-griffin-on-fixing-memphis)most-challenging-schools/ .  \n2 Juli Kim, Tim Field, and Elaine Hargrave,“The Achievement School District: Lessons from ","cbCaikZ3Ngsrmp7u","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikZ3Ngsrmp7u","pdf",975138,"English","# Proving What’s Possible\n## Innovation Zones: Design Features and Promise\n## iZone in Memphis: Origins and Strength\n## The Context: Memphis and Shelby County Schools\n## The Road to Shelby County’s Innovation Zone","[{\"question\":\"What is an innovation zone in the context of this article?\",\"answer\":\"An innovation zone is a district-led approach that gives participating schools control over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting. It is supported by contractual agreements and state law to sustain the zone despite changes in district leadership.\"},{\"question\":\"Which districts are highlighted as vanguards of innovation zones?\",\"answer\":\"The research highlights five districts: Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, Memphis (TN), and Springfield (MA).\"},{\"question\":\"How did Memphis City Schools launch the iZone and what did it target?\",\"answer\":\"In 2012, Memphis City Schools launched the iZone to turn around underperforming schools. The article notes that at the time, 69 of the 85 lowest-performing schools in Tennessee were located in Memphis.\"}]","Proving What’s Possible - Memphis iZone Innovation Zone Case Study | PDF",1792043226]