School District 54 in Schaumburg, Illinois, always viewed itself as a great school district. Unfortunately, many parents and community members in the district, located on the outskirts of Chicago, thought of it as less than stellar. Student achievement had remained stagnant for several years. Staff members were becoming increasingly frustrated and…

The authors evaluated a reform program known as "Strategic Staffing" in which principals were given increased autonomy to modify the delivery of instruction without compromising academic content. The program's central feature was reassignment of school leaders and key staff members from settings in which they were successful to schools…

What happens when policymakers create statewide school districts to turn around their worst-performing public schools? In Louisiana and Tennessee, Recovery School Districts (RSDs) have made modest-to-strong progress for kids and serve as national models for what the future of education governance might hold. In the Great Lakes State, the story is…

Research shows that an authentically engaged community improves schools--not just by participating in school events, but also by helping to shape reform. Family and community engagement is a proven strategy for strengthening schools. There is also ample evidence that schools serving large populations of students of color and students living in…

Districts throughout the nation are engaged in comprehensive transformation to "turn around" low performing schools. Standardized test scores are used to gauge student achievement; however, academic gains may lag behind leading indicators such as improved school climate and effective leadership. This study examines 16 underperforming…

New regulations attached to ARRA funding of federal School Improvement Fund grants aimed at producing rapid turnaround of low performing schools were highly criticized as unsuitable for rural schools. This mixed-methods study looked at the implementation of the School Improvement Fund Transformation Model in two rural Maine high schools during the…

Each year, the federal government provides billions of dollars to support low-income schools through the federal Title I program. Most of this money goes to Title I schools operating schoolwide programs. Schoolwide schools have authority under federal law to use Title I funds--and in some cases, other federal funds--flexibly to upgrade their…

The goal of the Center on School Turnaround (CST) is to provide technical assistance on research-based practices and emerging promising practices that will increase the capacity of states to support their districts in turning around the lowest-performing schools. When the CST opened its doors in October 2012, it began its work by asking the…

What does it take to change a school's mathematics achievement profile from low to one that is proficient and advanced? Is this transformed achievement profile sustainable? Such is the story presented here, in this three-phase case study of a K-8 urban charter school's mathematics program. The first phase discusses the school's…

The Indiana State Board of Education (ISBE) has not been shy about exercising its authority to intervene in chronically underperforming schools. Under the state's Public Law 221, the Indiana Board can mandate specific interventions for any school that has received six consecutive failing grades under the state's accountability system--up to a…

The Study of School Turnaround is a set of case studies of the school improvement process in a purposive sample of 35 schools receiving federal funds through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program over a three-year period (school years 2010-11 to 2012-13). This evaluation brief focuses on the nine SIG schools that were in rural areas and how…

"Turning around" chronically low-performing schools is of increasing interest to educators and policymakers, as highlighted by the U.S. Department of Education's (2010) recent call to rapidly improve the nation's 5,000 lowest performing schools. Yet there is little rigorous research on changes in student populations and teacher workforce…

Career and technical education (CTE) in Charlotte County, Florida, has a new identity thanks to the creativity and marketing by the K-12 CTE teachers who decided to make a difference. When one walks into any of the elementary or middle school STEM labs, or high school Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Academies, he/she sees a packed house…

Not long ago, Ontario's 900 high schools and their 600,000 students were in a rut. The province had experienced 101 years of tumult in education, including an entirely new program for high schools, rapid implementation of new curricula, a zero-tolerance approach to discipline, budget reductions, and much labor unrest. More importantly, the…

This article examines the turnaround and closure rates of charter and district schools in 10 states to determine if one school sector has done comparatively better than the other at addressing chronically low-performing schools. Low-performing charter and district schools were identified in 2003-04 based on their reading and math proficiency rates…