Purpose: As school districts evolve in their ability to actively support schools and educators, they must simultaneously contend with external policies that create additional demands on time and resources. This includes accountability policies aimed at increasing district and school capacity. This study uses Malen and Rice's (2004) dual dimensions…

Leading school turnaround has been conceptualized as a school-level issue focused on immediate change. There has been little consideration about how district leaders change systems to sustain school turnaround successes. This case study research conducted through the lens of Change Theory explores the leadership struggles of one mid-sized urban…

Although school turnaround has been studied extensively in Western contexts such as the United States, the applicability of remedies to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has not been extensively studied. The literature that exists predominantly uses a Western cultural lens. This article identifies four key dimensions of leadership for…

This qualitative study sought to learn why authorizers offer current under-performing charter schools the option of turnaround, as well as how, and what models of accountability they use to set up the balance of autonomy and accountability to improve low-performing charters rather than close them. Conducting interviews with nine individuals and…

In fall 2017, TNTP received a $7.8 million Mid-phase Education Innovation and Research grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement its Turnaround Leadership Teams Strategy (TLTS), a whole-school reform model that provides training and support to cohorts of principals, school leadership teams, and teachers. Under the grant, TNTP worked…

Network governance has become central to government school turnaround policy in many education systems. While external forces are essential in facilitating school turnaround, most studies focus on governments' leadership, paying less attention to the role of third-party actors. Referencing Shanghai, China, this empirical case study examines the…

Billions of dollars have been injected to reform turnaround schools over the past decades with minimal tangible positive outcomes related to improving student achievement, if any. In this qualitative study, we investigated how using longitudinal external root cause analyses (RCAs) contributed to enhancing leadership instructional practices in thee…

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…

Principals of low-performing schools in northern New Mexico lack adequate professional development to improve student outcomes. Exploration of experiences in the professional development program, Principals Pursuing Excellence, studied the lived phenomena of 12 rural northeastern turnaround school leaders through the conceptual framework of…

Since the passage of early federal K-12 school legislation such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 and its many evolutionary successors including the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) there has been increased scrutiny on low-performing schools and particularly their leaders. These…

Superintendents, human resources personnel, and principals are under immense pressure to ensure that their students perform well on standardized tests due to school accountability and school grades. This pressure is magnified for principals who are leaders of high poverty, high minority, Title I schools. These principals are constantly trying 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…

To address today's numerous goals and challenges, K-12 schools need transformational leaders--leaders able to substantively enhance and improve educational systems and educator practices in order to achieve better, longer-lasting outcomes for all students. This practical resource is for superintendents, principals, and other education leaders who…

While studies have examined leadership efforts to improve community engagement, less is known about how deeply rooted structured discourses, systems, and practices influence leadership actions and responses from communities. Deficit approaches to educational policy reform are pervasive in the most historically marginalized communities and school…

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of school turnaround through an examination of educator perceptions of the implementation of Voelkel's (2014) framework for professional learning communities (PLCs), collective efficacy, and transformational leadership, which provided the theoretical framework for the study. This study…