This study examines the potential for city and state takeovers to turn around low performing schools, utilizing diverse empirical measures to gauge the initial impact of city/state school district takeover reform in four districts. Data come from the U.S. Department of Education, Bureau of Labor Statistics, state departments of education, local districts, and other sources and focus on socioeconomics/demographics, politics/partnerships, school quality, and student achievement. Section one introduces the issue. Section two describes the research design. Section three employs a national, multi-level database to empirically analyze takeover reform. In the U.S., takeovers on the district level have produced modest and sometimes mixed achievement gains. Evidence suggests that mayoral takeovers are improving the lowest performing schools and may lead to the infusion of non-teacher administrators to management and increased fiscal responsibility. There are mixed results for state takeovers on both academic and management issues. Both city and state takeovers heavily emphasize academic accountability. Mayoral takeovers are more likely to utilize additional tests beyond state mandated tests. The study applies the integrated governance framework to examine variation in takeover effects in the case study districts. Ten tables are appended. (Contains 19 references and 10 tables.) (SM)