When the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) began requiring states to identify schools for support and improvement plans, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) recognized a statewide challenge. As a variety of improvement efforts got underway at individual schools and districts, the department lacked an overarching plan and…

Research shows that Black Women principals are often assigned to lead and turn around the most challenging schools with limited resources. This article provides a brief review of the historical trauma and incessant work-related stressors that Black Women principals encounter. The strategy of Revolutionary Rest is proposed as a collaborative and…

Discover how top-down, policy-into-practice educational mandates have adversely affected Indigenous communities in the United States' midwestern core. The author scrutinizes how leaders and intermediaries in Nebraska, involved at various tiers of policy development and reform, conceptualized and implemented school accountability policy in Indian…

School improvement plans (SIPs) are increasingly used to structure the process of setting and monitoring goals. As SIPs are designed to identify and address local problems of practice, there is the possibility that these tools help school leaders initiate and carry out ambitious school improvement. Yet, practical challenges abound in the…

The "statewide system of support," a feature of Congress's 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provided an organizational framework for a "managerial" approach to school improvement that was accelerated in No Child Left Behind (2001). When Congress temporarily flooded states with economic…

Ohio policymakers have consistently voiced support for rigorous education standards and ensuring that all students have the knowledge and skills needed to succeed after high school. State leaders have a duty to step in when schools are falling far short of performance standards. Students receiving a substandard education are more likely to…

The pandemic put both a microscope and a wide-angle lens on America's education systems. Under the microscope, parents had a window into individual classrooms as never before, as their children struggled to learn through laptops. Many didn't like what they observed. Through the wide angled lens, the country was jolted by evidence that school…

Governments have injected billions of dollars into the massive school improvement industry, but little is known about the providers that offer services and whether their services actually improve schools. Bryan VanGronigen and Coby Meyers highlight their research the topic, which has found that few states monitor and evaluate provider performance…

This report summarizes the findings of MA DESE's 2020 review of the Boston Public Schools, highlighting key findings around the teaching and learning, operational, financial, and enrollment challenges the state identified. It also describes why, according to the report, BPS persistently struggles in these areas and how its struggles negatively…

On the world stage, youth are using their voices to effect change. Shouldn't we also listen to them in our schools? University of Rochester's Valerie Marsh and Superintendent Shaun Nelms describe what happened when a struggling urban high school, on the brink of closure, put student voice at the center of its turnaround.

The Leadership and Inquiry for Turnaround (LIFT) initiative in Utah supports turnaround leaders' development and builds resilience and capacity of school leadership teams to thrive and lead their schools to improvement, even in the face of major challenges and adversity. This article describes how professional learning can help mitigate the…

Nationally, the number of charter schools opening and the enrollment size at charters is on the rise. But what happens when charter schools are low performing? For most charter schools and their authorizers, closing low-performing schools seems inevitable. However, school closures have dramatic impacts on students, families, and communities --…

In the School Turnaround and Leadership Development program, the Utah State Board of Education (Board) annually identifies low-performing district and charter schools: those that have been in the bottom three percent for two consecutive years. The school board or charter school authorizer of the low-performing school establishes a school…

This case was written for use in educational leadership programs preparing superintendents, central office leaders, and school principals. This case requires students to draw from knowledge of successful school turnaround, effective school leadership, and system-wide reform strategies to consider how a first year superintendent and a newly hired…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has developed state systems of monitoring and support for low-performing schools that include measuring schools on a Turnaround Practices and Indicators (TP&I) rubric focused on four turnaround practice areas. This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a larger…