Promising Leadership Practices for Rapid School Improvement That Lasts

A new report from the Center on School Turnaround presents promising practices for how to sustain the advances made in schools that have demonstrated rapid improvement. The practices presented are derived from a comprehensive review of relevant literature, and from the experience of five school principals who not only facilitated school turnaround but also sustained Read more about Promising Leadership Practices for Rapid School Improvement That Lasts[…]

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How to Turn Around a Failing School

To understand how to turn around a failing school quickly, using as few resources as possible, Alex Hill, Liz Mellon, Jules Goddard and Ben Laker studied changes made by 160 UK academies after they were put into remedial measures by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) up to seven years Read more about How to Turn Around a Failing School[…]

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The Principal Perspective

The Center for Public Education has released a new report called The Principal Perspective, which examines what impact principals actually have on a school and how they may or may not affect school turnarounds.  Existing research, of which there is little, seems to agree on several things: The job of principal has changed dramatically. Principals Read more about The Principal Perspective[…]

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Building Family and Community Demand for Dramatic School Change

District-led, dramatic change efforts in failing schools-including turnarounds and school closures-often face strong resistance from families and communities. Resistance may be based on district-community tensions, failed past school improvement efforts, or a lack of understanding about what is possible in schools.  In this new presentation by Public Impact, nine strategies are proposed to address these Read more about Building Family and Community Demand for Dramatic School Change[…]

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Resources: Successful Leadership for School Turnaround

Public Impact’s School Turnaround website contains many useful resources on developing leaders for School Turnaround efforts. You can download each of the resources described below at http://www.schoolturnarounds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=10 Using Competencies to Improve School Turnaround Principal Success This paper, produced for the University of Virginia’s School Turnaround Specialist Program, describes how using competencies that predict performance can Read more about Resources: Successful Leadership for School Turnaround[…]

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Teacher Turnaround Teams in Boston

Successful school turnarounds have long been elusive and have depended on finding talented teachers and leaders to engage in the transformation of school cultures and teaching norms. A newly piloted model out of Boston shows some promise for staffing school turnaround and providing career ladder options for experienced teachers. The Teacher Turnaround Teams (T3) program, Read more about Teacher Turnaround Teams in Boston[…]

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State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools

A new issue brief released by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices offers lessons drawn from its State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools project, which sought to address underlying causes of failing schools: weak leadership; inadequate skill levels among teachers; and insufficient high-quality teaching materials. In 2009, the project gave Colorado, Maryland, Read more about State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools[…]

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