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Keith Look really wants to hire the math teacher fidgeting nervously across the conference table.

鈥淢y math scores are going to kill me next year,鈥� the Shawnee High School principal tells her. 鈥淚 need a team of All-Stars. I really need you here.鈥�

He is not exaggerating.

Mr. Look, 37, must steer his 82-year-old high school on the far west side of this river city through an aggressive, federally mandated effort to reverse a decades-long decline in student achievement that has given Shawnee the label of one of Kentucky鈥檚 worst schools.

He is one soldier in an army of principals being tapped by state and district leaders to carry out U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan鈥檚 $3.5 billion bid to turn around thousands of chronically underperforming schools over the next three years.

A lot is riding on Mr. Look鈥檚 efforts.

Already, half of Shawnee鈥檚 teachers won鈥檛 be back next year. They鈥檝e been transferred to other schools in the 98,000-student Jefferson County school system, which includes the city of Louisville. Mr. Look鈥檚 own job is on the line: If he doesn鈥檛 produce 鈥渃onsiderable progress鈥� in the first year, he could be removed.

And then, of course, there鈥檚 the imperative to increase academic proficiency, raise graduation rates, and produce Shawnee graduates who are credible candidates for college and careers.

That won鈥檛 be easy. Consider Shawnee鈥檚 2009 math scores: More than half the school鈥檚 students scored at the lowest level, called 鈥渘ovice鈥� in Kentucky. The graduation rate for the class of 2007 was 56 percent, according to district data. The class of 2008 made a modestly better showing, at 61 percent. The school serves some of the city鈥檚 poorest students鈥攚hite and black鈥攚ho come from a community isolated in many ways from the rest of Louisville.

All of which makes Mr. Look鈥檚 job of selecting every teacher who will work at Shawnee this coming fall an even higher-stakes process.

The principal had been eyeing the math specialist鈥攚ho floats among several district schools to coach other math teachers鈥攁ll spring. So, he asks her in their recent meeting, will you come?

The teacher hedges slightly, saying that she admires Mr. Look鈥檚 plans to overhaul Shawnee. But the answer is no. Only a year into her current job as a resource teacher, she wants to stay put.

Her rejection is a small setback to Mr. Look鈥檚 strategy for fixing Shawnee, a school where 88.5 percent of the 477 students are poor enough to qualify for free and reduced-price school meals. Every other teacher he has recruited for the turnaround mission鈥�19 so far, most of them high-performing veterans from other schools in Louisville鈥攈as said yes.

鈥淚 am very excited about my staff,鈥� said Mr. Look, a Louisville native who was a Teach For America instructor in Baltimore in the early 1990s before moving on to teaching and administrative jobs in Philadelphia. 鈥淯ltimately, that鈥檚 where the difference is made. If you put good people in the classrooms, the rest is easier.鈥�

Debate Unsettled

As the Obama administration invests $3.5 billion over the next three years鈥攎ost of it coming from the 2009 economic-stimulus package鈥攊n turning around large numbers of the nation鈥檚 5,000 lowest-performing schools, Education Week will follow Shawnee High School鈥檚 journey.

Mr. Look and his team at Shawnee must meet the challenges of changing a school鈥檚 culture and raising student achievement on a very rapid timeline, even as a larger debate about school turnarounds is far from settled.

Most controversial are the four turnaround models that Secretary Duncan and the federal Department of Education are requiring as a condition for schools to receive even a penny of the stimulus-funded Title I School Improvement Grants.

The first option, called simply 鈥渢urnaround鈥� by the Education Department, requires that at least 50 percent of a school鈥檚 existing staff be replaced. The second option, turning a school over to either a charter school operator or some other nondistrict manager, is known as 鈥渞estart.鈥� Option three is closing the school and transferring students, while the fourth method, dubbed ,鈥漷ransformation,鈥� focuses on providing professional development and coaching to teachers and making changes to curriculum and teacher evaluation.

All but the closure option require principals to be replaced, except for those leaders who, like Mr. Look, have been in their assignments less than two years. In those cases, states and districts have discretion over whether the principal should be replaced.

The four methods have been criticized by some state and local superintendents, as well as members of Congress, as too rigid and unworkable, especially in rural districts, where recruiting and retaining top-notch teaching and administrative talent can be difficult. While the Obama administration hopes to codify those models in a renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it鈥檚 far from certain that members of Congress鈥攅ven those who are close administration allies鈥攚ill go along.

In the meantime, schools like Shawnee High that are in the first batch slated for intervention must proceed.

Lengthy Process

For Shawnee, the turnaround process started in February, when the high school was identified as one of 10 in Kentucky most in need of aggressive intervention. That put Shawnee and the nine other schools at the head of the line for a piece of the $50 million in Title I School Improvement Grants that began flowing to Kentucky this spring. A new state law also forced action on the low-performing schools.

The school was marked for a big shake-up, as Sheldon Berman, the superintendent of the Jefferson County schools, decided that Shawnee would use the, 鈥渢urnaround鈥� model, better known in Kentucky as 鈥渞estaffing.鈥� That effort comes on top of restructuring already under way to convert the high school into a K-12 campus, re-energize an aviation and aerospace magnet program, and add an engineering magnet.

Mr. Look, who was assigned to Shawnee in 2008 after a successful run at a Louisville middle school, knew his job was at risk, even though Mr. Berman publicly insisted that he remain to lead the school鈥檚 turnaround.

But that decision was up to a team of state auditors, who, after spending several days in the school observing instruction and interviewing every teacher and administrator, agreed that Mr. Look should stay. He was the only Jefferson County principal to get such an unequivocal endorsement.

The state audit team found plenty of problems at Shawnee. Chief among them were a culture of 鈥渓ow academic expectations鈥� and a 鈥済eneral lack of rigor in the instructional program鈥濃�攃lassic hallmarks of low-performing schools. The team also found fault with the lack of 鈥渇ormal鈥� processes for analyzing student data.

At the same time, the auditors concluded that Mr. Look 鈥渋s a holistic, systemic thinker鈥� who is 鈥漺idely respected and trusted by a wide variety of stakeholders,鈥� and they credited him with having already made a positive mark on the school鈥檚 culture. Attendance is up. The building is clean, teachers report getting the resources they need for instruction, and discipline problems have diminished.

The auditors said Mr. Look would need help, however, in managing the details of Shawnee鈥檚 day-to-day operations so that he could focus on the bigger revitalization efforts. To that end, they recommended that Mr. Look hire a 鈥渟chool administrative manager鈥� to handle the more mundane aspects of running Shawnee.

He hopes to find his own manager, but may have to pick from a limited pool of candidates that the central office provides.

Building a Team

With the audit finished in early May and his job secure for at least one more year, Mr. Look moved immediately to rebuild the Shawnee staff. Every teacher, counselor, or other employee whose job directly affected classroom instruction had to re-interview with him and with an official from the Jefferson County teachers鈥� union for his or her job. Of the school鈥檚 42 academic staff members, 29 elected to re-interview, while 13 opted to retire or transfer to another campus.

The situation created some unease and hard feelings.

鈥淪ometimes it does feel like we are expected to work miracles,鈥� said Crystal Darensbourg, a 12th grade English teacher who was rehired by Mr. Look. She is losing all but one of her English-teacher colleagues.

Still, Ms. Darensbourg said, 鈥淚 think there were teachers here whose niche is just not working with some of our kids.鈥�

Imogen Herrick, a 10th grade science teacher who left a private girls鈥� school in Louisville a year ago to teach at Shawnee, was more direct.

鈥淚 think some of them had just been here too long and didn鈥檛 believe that these kids could ever learn,鈥� said Ms. Herrick, who was also rehired.

None of the 鈥渙verstaffed鈥� teachers from Shawnee is losing a job. All of them have already been, or will be, placed in other Jefferson County schools, and it鈥檚 possible that principals at the other five schools targeted for turnaround could elect to hire them.

Mr. Look has mostly had a free hand to hire the teachers he wants, though he did agree, at the central office鈥檚 request, to hire one teacher he had not recruited. He鈥檚 also been able to cultivate a key ally in Debbie Powers, the executive director of the Kentucky Principals Academy at the University of Louisville, who helped prepare him for the audit and has worked with him almost daily on planning, budgeting, and strategizing for the turnaround.

But Mr. Look will have no control over the people state education officials will be sending to work with him and his teachers on a daily basis. And his bosses in the school district鈥檚 central office will also be sending reinforcements.

鈥淗ow do you manage a bunch of people who鈥檝e been told to come into a school building and make change?鈥� Mr. Look said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 June, and I don鈥檛 know yet who these people are going to be. I have no idea if we are even going to have the same philosophies.鈥�

As part of the state鈥檚 role in overseeing and supporting the targeted schools, the Kentucky education department will assign a math specialist, a reading and language arts specialist, and a mentor for every principal in each of the 10 schools, said Sally Sugg, an associate state commissioner of education.

In addition, the state agency is creating three centers in partnership with universities鈥攖o serve schools in the east, west, and central sections of Kentucky鈥攖o provide an additional layer of support for the low-performing schools.

鈥淭hese are the best of the best in our state who will be in these buildings, every day, working alongside the principals and teachers,鈥� Ms. Sugg said. 鈥漈his is different than anything we鈥檝e done before around school improvement. We have had to find tougher-skinned people to go into these buildings to help build capacity.鈥�

And with the state able to withdraw the roughly $440,000 grant that Shawnee and the other schools will receive annually for the next three years, schools will have much more at stake if they don鈥檛 proceed with their turnaround plans and meet the benchmarks that they set, Ms. Sugg said.

Defining Success

But exactly how much progress Shawnee must make, and how fast it must demonstrate those gains, is still not clearly defined, something Mr. Look worries about.

Ms. Sugg said Shawnee and the other schools will have to submit quarterly updates that will report, at the very least, student outcomes on interim assessments. To some extent, the schools themselves will define their progress when they propose goals in the improvement plans they must submit to the state education department, Ms. Sugg said.

But she conceded that there鈥檚 not a 鈥渧ery clear-cut measure of what success is.鈥�

鈥淲e are defining it as 鈥榗onsiderable progress鈥� toward the goals that the schools outline in their applications,鈥� she said.

Despite all the loose ends with only three months until Shawnee High reopens its doors to students in an era of 鈥渢urnaround,鈥� Mr. Look is hopeful about the school鈥檚 prospects.

鈥淚鈥檓 actually nervous about having to be a principal for a staff that鈥檚 this competent and this committed,鈥� Mr. Look said. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 flattered as hell that some of them would risk their careers in some ways to come work here.鈥�