The U.S. secretary of education鈥檚 call to 鈥渢urn around鈥� the nation鈥檚 5,000 worst-performing schools has found a warm welcome among educators and policymakers who see that focus as long overdue. But it has also sparked debate about how鈥攁nd whether鈥攕uch an enormous leadership and management challenge can be accomplished.
Arne Duncan is pressing for attention to chronically underperforming schools as one of four areas that states must address if they are to receive federal economic-stimulus aid. Those schools have failed to make academic progress year after year, the secretary said in a June speech, but 鈥渢oo many administrators are unwilling to close failing schools and create better options.鈥�
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Mr. Duncan wrote in a Commentary that month in Education Week, school officials have not made dramatic changes in troubled schools, but have 鈥渢aken the path of least resistance.鈥�
Now, Mr. Duncan is seeking to rally an army to overhaul learning in the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools over five years. He鈥檚 calling on 鈥渢urnaround specialists,鈥� charter school groups, unions, school districts, and states to do their part.
Few dispute that bold action on low-performing schools has been lacking. But even with new political leadership and money, the job may require more of the field than it can deliver.
鈥淚 worry that we don鈥檛 have the capacity to do it, and I鈥檝e worried about it for 10 years,鈥� said Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director of education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who is now a partner in the education advocacy and strategy group VA/R Partners, based in La Jolla, Calif.
鈥淏ut we didn鈥檛 know how to go to the moon when Kennedy put that out, either,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is a bigger challenge than that. This is our moonshot. And it鈥檚 not one moonshot, it鈥檚 thousands.鈥�
Quick and Dramatic
The federal government is dangling a lot of money for school turnaround work. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed by Congress at the urging of President Barack Obama in an effort to spur the nation鈥檚 economy, includes $3.5 billion for the Title I school improvement grant program. The current fiscal year鈥檚 budget includes $545 million specifically for low-performing schools, and the Obama administration has requested another $1.5 billion for that purpose in the fiscal 2010 budget.
In a June 22 speech, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined four basic ways to turn around low-performing schools. Since all assume a year of planning, Mr. Duncan urged educators to begin planning now for the first round of action in fall 2010.
1: The new principal and lead teachers recruit new teachers in the spring. The previous teachers must reapply for their jobs, but most don鈥檛 get rehired.
2: The school鈥檚 leadership and staff are replaced, and the school is handed over to a charter-management organization or for-profit education management organization.
3: Most of the school鈥檚 staff members remain, but major steps are taken to revamp school culture. 69传媒 that take this approach must, at a minimum, establish a 鈥渞igorous鈥� performance-evaluation system, along with more supports, training, and mentoring; strengthen curriculum and instruction; increase learning time; and give leadership teams more flexibility to make budgeting, staffing, and calendar decisions. Mr. Duncan warns that this approach can鈥檛 be used as a 鈥渄odge to avoid difficult but necessary choices.鈥�
4: The school is closed, and students are enrolled in better schools.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education
Definitions of 鈥渟chool turnaround鈥� vary. Some include closing schools or hiring new staff members; others don鈥檛. Most definitions share the view, however, that what distinguishes a 鈥渢urnaround鈥� from 鈥渟chool improvement鈥� efforts is that it delivers dramatic improvement within a few years.
The private sector, where the idea was born, itself has a mixed record on corporate turnarounds, according to Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute.
鈥淭urnarounds can be a valuable tool for improving underperforming schools,鈥� Mr. Hess said in an article he co-wrote for the American School Board Journal last year. 鈥淗owever, the hope that we can systematically turn around all troubled schools鈥攐r even a majority of them鈥攊s at odds with much of what we know from private-sector efforts.鈥�
In his June 22 speech, Mr. Duncan outlined four basic ways to turn around low-performing schools, assuming one year of planning. He urged educators to begin planning now for the first round of school turnarounds in the fall of 2010.
Role of Charter 69传媒
Mr. Duncan鈥檚 special plea for help from the charter school sector has raised questions about charter managers鈥� interest in, and capacity for, fixing low-performing schools.
Greg Richmond, the president of the Chicago-based National Association of Charter School Authorizers, whose members oversee half the country鈥檚 4,000-plus charter schools, said it would be 鈥渁 challenge鈥� to persuade high-quality charter-management organizations to step into the fray. Successful CMOs, he said, have excelled at opening perhaps one new school,and carefully controlling its design and replication. Such schools are publicly funded but largely independent in their operations.
鈥淭he reason why they are excellent schools is they are very thoughtful about what it is that makes them excellent, and they pick their opportunities carefully,鈥� Mr. Richmond said. 鈥淭urnarounds are more reactive. The school system calls more of the shots. So a CMO is losing some of that control.鈥�
Jordan Meranus, who oversees turnaround work for the San Francisco-based New69传媒 Venture Fund, thinks that a varied field of school management organizations offers hopeful signs of a growing capacity to do turnaround work.
He points to Mastery Charter 69传媒, which took over three floundering Philadelphia middle schools in the past few years and has produced gains of 40 percentage points on state tests there. Mastery, which is in New69传媒鈥� investment portfolio, is often cited by Mr. Duncan.
鈥淭hese organizations are doing this, they are doing it multiple times, and they鈥檙e demonstrating that it鈥檚 possible,鈥� Mr. Meranus said. 鈥淐ombine that with school operators鈥攕cores of them鈥攖hat will partner with reform-minded districts and states to take on this work, and we have the makings of a new cohort that can do this successfully.鈥�
Two-by-Fours and Scalpels
Robert L. Hughes, the president of New Visions for Public 69传媒, a reform organization that works with 76 New York City schools, said that in 20 years of work, he has seen some schools that had to be shut down and started fresh elsewhere, and others that managed significant improvements while staying open.
鈥淵ou need to have an accurate diagnosis of why each of those 5,000 schools are failing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 crucial. Sometimes you need a two-by-four to get change. Other times you need a scalpel.鈥�
He added that district operations must be reimagined alongside school operations if schools are to get the necessary freedom and support to flourish.
William E. Guenther, the president and founder of Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, a Boston-based group that designed a turnaround framework in 2007 and is helping states use its strategies, said the prospect of fixing 5,000 schools over five years doesn鈥檛 have to be daunting. That鈥檚 1,000 schools, or an average of 20 schools per state, annually, he said.
鈥淎re we really going to stand up in front of those kids and their parents and say we can鈥檛 take a shot at turning around 20 schools a year?鈥� Mr. Guenther said.
Robert Balfanz, a Johns Hopkins University research scientistwho located the 2,000 high school 鈥渄ropout factories鈥� that Mr. Duncan repeatedly highlights as symbols of needed turnaround, said he believes the education field possesses the knowledge to make low-performing schools work well. But that knowledge is not 鈥渃odified, easily accessible, and packaged for broad consumption.鈥�
鈥淭he challenge is getting the right strategy in the right place, and getting the know-how to more people,鈥� he said. (鈥淩esearch Doesn鈥檛 Offer Much Guidance on Turnarounds,鈥� Aug. 12, 2009)
鈥楾op to Bottom鈥�
In Hartford, Conn., one of the school districts singled out by Secretary Duncan for success in turning around low-performing schools, leaders have found that it requires a new principal and staff members, more school-level autonomy, and a year of planning that yields a redesign of a school鈥檚 operations.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just change a couple things in silos, like a new principal or staff. You literally have to redesign a school from top to bottom, specifying every detail, so everyone there knows what they are committing to,鈥� said Steven J. Adamowski, the superintendent of the 25,000-student district, which redesigned one high school and two elementary schools last year.
Mr. Adamowski, who helped lead school improvement work at the American Institutes for Research before going to Hartford in 2006, said the danger in turnaround work is to do 鈥渢oo much in a shotgun manner,鈥� without 鈥済oing deep.鈥�
Daniel L. Duke, an education professor with a University of Virginia program that trains school turnaround specialists, said he has found that school closure and wholesale staff replacement are not always necessary. But a new principal is key, he said, and the quality of that leadership is crucial to the practices that will determine a successful turnaround.
For instance, educators often say that teachers should meet in teams to analyze data, but they might do that at schools where turnarounds work as well as those where they don鈥檛, Mr. Duke said. The difference is a principal who can lead the staff in being open to what the data tell them, he said, not 鈥渨arding off鈥� conclusions about how instruction needs to change.
Staffing Up
Regardless of the debate over how best to turn around schools, organizations of many stripes are responding to the call.
Joseph Wise, the chief education officer at EdisonLearning, said the New York City-based education management company has 鈥渟taffed up pretty aggressively鈥� to position itself for more turnaround work. It has added people with expertise in school turnaround, and started a new team to help the company鈥檚 regional managers strategize with school boards, superintendents, and charter school boards.
Mr. Meranus of the New69传媒 Venture Fund said that in the past two months, more of his nonprofit organization鈥檚 investment partners have been calling for guidance on getting into turnaround work.
New Leaders for New 69传媒, a New York City-based nonprofit group that trains and places principals, is getting more inquiries from its state and district partners about expansion, said Jon Schnur, its chief executive officer. One state, for instance, has expressed interest in having New Leaders expand from one district to multiple districts statewide, with a particular focus on the lowest-performing schools, Mr. Schnur said.
Mr. Guenther of Mass Insight cautioned that the big turnaround push, with its attendant funding, risks attracting those unprepared for the work.
鈥淪tates will have lots of money they have to spend quickly,鈥� he said. 鈥淧roviders could just hang out their shingles, rename their existing staff, and call themselves turnaround partners.鈥�
Even with its risks and challenges, many see the high-visibility call for school turnarounds as an unprecedented opportunity.
鈥淭his is a transformative moment in time,鈥� Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a recent interview. 鈥淚f we blow it, if we don鈥檛 come up with models that work, it鈥檚 a disappointment to people.鈥�
