AFTER 10 YEARS of state oversight, Holyoke schools are in the process of exiting state receivership. One of three districts placed into state receivership under a 2010 law, with officials at the time citing a long stretch of poor student performance and struggling leadership, Holyoke is the first to be returned to a semblance of local control. 

This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas joins reporter Jennifer Smith to trace the last decade and change in state takeovers of local school districts. Touted for years as a way to wrestle underperforming districts onto a path to improvement, receivership’s results, as Jonas has reported, are a far cry from a silver-bullet fix. 

“This is sort of a super-powered authority of the state coming into a local school district and usurping the power of local officials to run the schools,” Jonas explained. “Now, that can be a bad thing from a local official’s view, or, in the state’s view, a sort of last-ditch necessary move for schools that have been struggling for some time.” 

Receivership powers were part of an education reform package passed in 2010, and they have become one of the major flashpoints in debates over the effectiveness of ed reform policies.  

Defenders of the receivership law continued to argue in recent years that the option of state control was a powerful accountability tool. Opponents of the receivership option, teachers unions most prominently, contend that not only has research found receivership to be dubiously connected to improvement but that it can also be a tool for weakening unions. 

Researcher Beth Schueler, examining state takeovers broadly and Massachusetts takeovers specifically over the past few years, found no clear evidence that such takeovers improve academic outcomes. But there is some evidence, she found, that the subset of takeovers that involve a role for local decision makers, including the ongoing state control of the schools in Lawrence, may produce better results.  

Local officials themselves are mixed on the decision to place schools into receivership, even as they cheer Holyoke’s exit, Jonas reports. Long-time boosters of education reform are also increasingly pointing to the broader set of social determinants that play a crucial role in educational outcomes, like secure housing and health care access. 

Paul Reville, who authored the 2010 reform law as state education secretary under Gov. Deval Patrick, “is still defending it, but is quick to say any idea that this alone would be the key to getting Holyoke students fully on track or students performing on levels like those in more affluent districts is just not the case,” Jonas noted. 

Jonas and Smith discuss the case for Holyoke receivership in 2015 (5:00), the mixed bag of results when states take over school districts (12:15), and the fights to come (25:30).