States Creating New Districts to Steer 'Turnarounds'

If the job of a traditional superintendent is hard, imagine the complexities involved in building a school system from scratch—especially one composed of schools with some of the most intractable educational challenges.

That's the task facing education leaders in Michigan and Tennessee, which are building special districts to take over low-performing schools this year and next.

And it may become the job of more school leaders, as states work to enact wholesale changes in groups of struggling schools, rather than taking on one school at a time or...