A recent report from the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse identifies practices that can improve the performance of chronically low-performing schools — a process commonly referred to as “turnaround.”
The report, Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools, makes four recommendations based on current research into school turnaround efforts:
- Schools signal the need for dramatic change with strong leadership. Schools should make a clear commitment to changes from the status quo, and leaders should signal the magnitude and urgency of that change. A low-performing school that fails to make adequate yearly progress must improve student achievement within a short timeframe—it can’t take years to implement incremental reforms.
- Chronically low-performing schools should maintain a sharp focus on improving instruction. To improve instruction, schools should use data to set goals for instructional improvement, make changes to immediately and directly affect instruction, and continually reassess student learning and instructional practices to refocus goals.
- Schools should make visible improvements early in the school turnaround process. These “quick wins” can rally staff and overcome resistance and inertia.
- School leaders must build a committed staff. All staff members must be dedicated to the school’s improvement goals and qualified to carry out school improvement. This may require changes in staff: releasing, replacing, or redeploying staff not fully committed to turning around student performance, and bringing in new staff who are committed.
Though there is admittedly “minimal” evidence to support these recommendations, the practices suggested appear to make sense when trying to turn around a struggling school.
To read the full report, please visit http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide.aspx?sid=7
