Turning Around
Low-Performing Schools
REL Appalachia
Charleston, West Virginia, September 2011
Sam Redding
Center on Innovation & Improvement
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The Turnaround Era

Before the IES Practice Guide

The IES Practice Guide

Context for the Practices

Leadership for Change

The Things You Already Know
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Before the Practice Guide
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Restructuring
Business Concept – in business turnarounds and
bankruptcy
 NCLB Restructuring (change in governance)
1. State Take-Over
2. Turnaround – usually change in leadership and
other change
3. Reopen as Charter School
4. Contract to an Education Management
Organization (EMO)
5. Other (96% of restructuring -- CEP)

The IES Practice Guide
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Four Recommended Practices




Signal the need for dramatic change
with strong leadership.
Maintain a consistent focus on
improving instruction.
Make visible improvements early in the
school turnaround process. (quick
wins)
Build a committed staff.
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Interrelationship
Strong Leadership
Improving
Committed
Instruction
Staff
Quick Wins
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Recommended Practice #1:
Signal the need for dramatic
change with strong leadership.
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Recommended Practice #1:
Signal the need for dramatic change with strong leadership.
Schools should make a clear commitment to dramatic changes
from the status quo, and the leader 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 does not have the luxury of years to implement
incremental reforms.
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New vs. Continuing Principal
NEW

Credibility as change agent

No existing relationships to dismantle

ID principal with “change leader” skills
______________________________
CONTINUING

No learning curve

Existing relationships to build on
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Leadership Practices
Sharing responsibility (leadership team, lead teachers)
 Principal as instructional leader
 Strong leadership

Principal
Teacher
Principal
Teachers
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Signaling Change

Communicate clear purpose to staff and community

Monitor teacher and student performance

Become more accessible to staff and students

Deal directly and immediately with problems

Campaign in the community/district
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Communicating About Dramatic Change
1.
2.
3.
Brutal Facts—life prospects for students
Vision of What Could Be—results in similar
schools
Pathway to Achieve Vision—
- plan
- procedures
- practices
- expectations
- metrics
4. Culture of Candor
Recommended Practice #2
Maintain a consistent focus on
improving instruction.
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Recommended Practice #2:
Maintain a consistent focus on improving instruction.
Chronically low-performing schools need to maintain a sharp
focus on improving instruction at every step of the reform
process.
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 the goals and
refine the practices.
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Using Data to Improve Instruction

School level: identify instructional focus — target subjects,
subgroups

Class level: identify teachers’ professional development needs;
topics for re-teaching

Student level: identify skills and knowledge each student needs
to master
Continually assess progress towards goals.
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Changing Instruction

Teacher collaboration: common planning time,
disciplined instructional planning

Targeted professional development:
embedded professional development, targeted to
need based on classroom observations and student
outcomes

Curriculum review and alignment
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Instructional Core
Maintain a sharp focus on improving instruction at every
step of the reform process
Expect universal application of effective practice
Expect disciplined, collaborative planning and data
analysis
Provide aligned and differentiated instruction in multiple
modes
Use data to:





-
set goals for instructional improvement
make changes to immediately and directly affect instruction
continually reassess student learning and instructional practices to
refocus the goals and refine the practices
Recommended Practice #3
Make visible improvements early in
the school turnaround process.
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Recommended Practice #3
Make visible improvements early in the school turnaround process.
Quick wins can rally staff around the effort
and overcome resistance and inertia.
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Strategies
Goals
 One or two, narrow goals, can be achieved quickly
 Must be important to stakeholders and make visible improvement
 Must be do-able without additional resources or authority
 Should contribute to long-term goals
Implementation
 Do it quick
 Plow through protests
 Follow up
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Examples

Use of time: more planning, more uninterrupted
instructional time

Resources: dedicated teacher work space, texts
and materials available on time

Physical plant: clean, paint school; displays

Discipline: teachers, administrators visible; reduce
transitions between classes; hands-down rules
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Recommended Practice #4
Build a committed staff.
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Recommended Practice #4
Build a committed staff.
The school leader must build a staff that is committed
to the school’s improvement goals and qualified to
carry out school improvement.
This goal may require changes in staff, such as
releasing, replacing, or redeploying staff who are not
fully committed to turning around student
performance and bringing in new staff who are
committed.
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Assess, Redeploy, Replace, Recruit Staff

Assess skills, knowledge, and will

Redeploy if staff fit another necessary role

Replace if necessary

Recruit to fit needs
Competence
Fit
Willingness
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CONTEXT
FOR
THE PRACTICES
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Why These Practices?

How are turnaround practices different from
other school reform practices?

What is the evidence that these practices
contribute to school turnaround?
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Turnaround and School Reform
District
Support
CSR,
effective
instruction,
etc.
Turnaround
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Evidence Base
 10 case studies; 35 schools
◦
◦
◦
21 elementary schools
8 middle schools
6 high schools
 Turnarounds with new leaders and staff
 Business turnaround literature
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Levels of Evidence
Strong
Moderate
Low
Requires
(1) studies whose designs can support causal conclusions
(internal validity) and
(2) studies that in total include enough of the range of participants
and settings on which the recommendation is focused to support
the conclusion that the results can be generalized to those
participants and settings (external validity).
Requires
(1) studies that support strong causal conclusions but where
generalization is uncertain or
(2) studies that support the generality of a relationship but where
the causality is uncertain.
Based on expert opinion derived from strong findings or theories in
related areas and/or expert opinion buttressed by direct evidence
that does not rise to the moderate or strong level. Low evidence is
operationalized as evidence not meeting the standards for the
moderate or high level.
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Panel Members and Staff
Panel
Rebecca Herman (Chair), American Institutes for Research
 Priscilla Dawson, Philadelphia and Trenton Public Schools (retired)
 Thomas Dee, Swarthmore College
 Jay Greene, University of Arkansas
 Rebecca Maynard, University of Pennsylvania
 Sam Redding, National Center on Innovation & Improvement

Staff

Marlene Darwin, American Institutes for Research
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Leadership for Change
Leader Actions
School Turnarounds: Actions and Results,
2008, Center on Innovation & Improvement
Dana Brinson, Julie Kowal and Bryan C. Hassel of Public Impact for the
Center on Innovation & Improvement. Lauren Morando Rhim and Eli
Valsing also contributed.
Leader Actions:
Initial Analysis and Problem Solving
Collect & Analyze Data
 Make Action Plan Based on Data

Leader Actions:
Driving for Results
Concentrate on Big, Fast Payoffs in Year One
 Implement Practices Even if Require
Deviation
 Require All Staff to Change
 Make Necessary Staff Replacements
 Focus on Successful Tactics; Halt Others
 Do Not Tout Progress as Ultimate Success

Leader Actions:
Influencing Inside and Outside
Communicate a Positive Vision
 Help Staff Personally Feel Problems (of
students)
 Gain Support of Key Influencers
 Silence Critics with Speedy Success

Leader Actions:
Measuring, Reporting (and Improving)
Measure and Report Progress Frequently
 Require all Decision Makers to Share Data
and Problem Solve

 What
Data?
 Who Solves Problems?
The Things You Already Know
38
What Happened About Year 7?
Millard Fillmore School
Scores on State Assessment
Year 1
Year 4
Year 7
Year 9
Year 12
What happened about Year 7?
List 3 actions that most contributed to Millard Fillmore’s improvement.
Change of principals, students, teachers doesn’t count.
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Proximal Variables for Student Learning
The student’s –

prior learning, which teachers have provided;

metacognitive skills, which can be taught;

motivation to learn and sense of self-efficacy, which a teacher nurtures;

effort and time on task, which a teacher expects;

interaction—academic and social—with teachers and other students;

family’s engagement and support for learning, which a teacher curries.
The teacher’s 
instructional planning and classroom management;

instructional delivery through a variety of modes;

personalization (individualization) of instruction for each student;

taught and aligned curriculum, designed by teacher teams.
You have been the principal in a successful
turnaround. In 3 years your school has
been transformed! Of course, you
followed the 4 IES recommendations, and
you also applied the 14 leader actions. But
then, it really isn’t all about you.
So . . .
1. What changed in your school that really mattered for a
student? What directly contributed most to improved student
learning?
2. You are leaving the school after this year. What must you do,
internally, to ensure that the school’s gains will not be lost?
Specifically, how will the school sustain whatever you
identified in #1 as the key contributor to improved student
learning?
3. What can your district do to ensure that your school’s gains
are not lost when you leave?
4. What can the state do to ensure that your school’s gains are not
lost when you leave?
How would your answers above change if your
school is a high school, elementary school, middle
school?
Resources
The free practice guide is available from IES at
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguides
Support materials available at
dww.ed.gov
Other turnaround resources at:
www.centerii.org
_______________________________________
Sam Redding
Center on Innovation & Improvement
sredding@centerii.org
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