The purpose of this study was to examine the efforts of school districts in developing and sustaining their capacity to improve student achievement in response to increased accountability. The study sought to confirm what the research says regarding the role of the school district in influencing school improvement. While there is a significant…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover which leadership responsibilities, within the domains of trust, communication, learning, and shared leadership, did elementary and middle school principals of successful turnaround schools commonly perceive as most necessary to lead a turnaround intervention model school. Themes were…

The inspiration for this book was a crucial observation: that if the school turnaround movement is to have widespread and lasting consequences, it will need to incorporate meaningful district involvement in its efforts. The result is a volume that considers school turnaround efforts at the district level, examining the evidence thus far and…

This case study examined the change strategies in a turnaround school at the elementary level to understand and describe how change occurred and was sustained at this campus. This study examined the factors which contributed to the change in academic success of students, examined beliefs about change that led to the change process, identified the…

While the debate continues over whether to close failing schools or attempt fixing them, the author asserts that the solution most often lies in assigning strong leaders to them who will take definite and immediate action. Reviewing his own success turning around schools, he says creating a sense of urgency, unloading poor performing staff, and…

Using critical theory and an analysis of missionary reports and documentation describing education in colonial Puerto Rico and Mexico, the authors cross borders and time periods to socially and historically situate Spanish colonial educational methodologies and their contemporary use in one low-income Latino community in urban Detroit, Michigan.…

Implementation of multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) has grown rapidly in Kansas and is a key strategy for turning around low-performing schools in the state. MTSS is designed to improve outcomes for all students by instituting system-level change across the classroom, school, district, and state. Such systemic change is accomplished by…

This study explores the neoliberal agenda of turnaround school reform efforts in America by examining the application and transformation of a Midwest State Turnaround Schools Project for the public school system. Perceptions of administrators and state-level policy actors are considered. Data were collected from 13 participants during the…

The purpose of this quantitative non-experimental predictive study was to determine if CIA alignment factors and related district support systems are associated with student achievement to enable the turnaround of schools in crisis. This study aimed to utilize the District Snapshot Tool to determine if the district systems that support CIA…

With support from a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, the FAST (Families and Schools Together) program has been implemented in thirty Philadelphia schools to improve family engagement and, by extension, advance school turnaround. The project team includes the nonprofit Families and Schools Together, Inc.; the Early Childhood Education…

In this study, methodology and theory were linked to explicate the nature of education practice within schools facing exceptionally challenging circumstances (SFECC) in Trinidad and Tobago. The research design was an iterative quan>QUAL-quan>qual multi-method research programme, consisting of 3 independent projects linked together by overall…

Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane have gathered a diverse group of scholars to examine the shifting federal role in education across the presidential administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While the administrations were vastly different, one thing remained constant: an ongoing and significant expansion of the federal role in…

The key practices that improve struggling schools, writes Chenoweth--a researcher who's studied successful high-poverty schools and their leaders--aren't a mystery. From both decades of research and the craft knowledge of educators who've jumped in and turned around schools, we know these practices generally yield improvement: (1) a…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an intervention model designed to assist all students regardless of their academic ability. It seeks to assist students who are struggling in academics by providing them with targeted assistance in the form of tutoring, pull-out services, and differentiated classroom instruction. "Examining Response to…

In "Redefining the School District in America," Nelson Smith reexamines existing recovery school districts (RSDs)--entities in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Michigan charged with running and turning around their state's worst schools--and assembles the most comprehensive catalog of similar initiatives underway and under consideration…