Turnaround schools represent a strategy for swiftly revitalizing underperforming educational institutions. This study examined how teachers perceived the role of teacher leadership within one urban turnaround high school. The study addressed the following research questions: 1. How do teachers within an urban turnaround high school conceptualize…

Massachusetts General Law does not recognize students as stakeholders in school turnaround, despite extant literature supporting the benefits of including students as decision makers in their education experiences. The purpose of this Action Research study was to understand why student voices are critical to successful school turnaround, and to…

This report focuses highlights turnarounds at two Massachusetts schools, Worcester Technical High School and the Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy in Springfield, that were once known for high dropout rates and low graduation rates. The report shows that these schools now excel due to new leadership, community investment, and committed…

Although current education reform models have been in place for over a decade, the number of U.S. public schools identified as underperforming continues to rise. While the federal government has imposed increasingly stringent achievement requirements, practical instruction on improving schools remains inadequate. Learning from principals…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with its research partner have developed a system that changes the equation on monitoring. The research-driven approach to monitoring allows DESE, within its existing activities and resources, to use monitoring to improve the state system of support as well as direct…

Over the past half-century, billions of dollars have been spent across the nation on efforts to transform low-performing public schools -- most of them urban, most of them low-income, and most of them disproportionately enrolled with students of color -- into models of success. It hasn't worked. The failure of attempts to remedy the state of urban…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education supports low-performing schools through a process that draws on qualitative and quantitative data from monitoring visits. The data are used to produce ratings for 26 turnaround indicators in four turnaround practice areas relating to school leadership, instructional practices,…

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…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education supports low-performing schools through a process that draws on qualitative and quantitative data from monitoring visits. The data are used to produce ratings for 26 turnaround indicators in four turnaround practice areas relating to school leadership, instructional practices,…

These are the appendixes for the report, "Relationship between State Annual School Monitoring Indicators and Outcomes in Massachusetts Lowest Performing Schools." The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has developed state systems of monitoring and support for low-performing schools that include…

The purpose of this retrospective case study was to examine the implementation of turnaround practices in an underperforming urban elementary school. The research was guided by the overarching question: What are the lessons that can be learned from one turnaround school in Massachusetts, United States that could be shared with other urban…

Ever since the publication of "A Nation at Risk" (1983), and in particular over the last 15 years with the implementation of federal policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB] (2002) and its successor, Every Student Succeeds Act (2017), the spotlight on how failing schools support our neediest and most marginalized students has…

School leadership is a key factor in school turnarounds. The general prescription for what school leaders should do tends to be this: Set high expectations for staff and students and give strong instructional supports. Most school systems recognize how tall an order this is, given everything else the principal job entails. Even principals who are…

Purpose: School district superintendents say politics is the number one factor limiting their performance, yet research provides limited guidance on navigating the political dynamics of district improvement. State takeovers and district-wide turnaround efforts tend to involve particularly heated and polarized debates. Massachusetts' 2012 takeover…

While state policymakers are ultimately responsible for public schools statewide, their influence over local school districts has always been incomplete at best. State chiefs, the ostensible leaders of state education agencies, have limited powers and local school boards ultimately control most of the money and staff. As a result, when state…