Download or read book Turning Around Low Performing Schools in Chicago written by Marisa De La Torre and published by Consortium on Chicago School Research. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Specific strategies for "turning around" chronically low-performing schools have become prominent, with the U.S. Department of Education enacting policies to promote four school improvement models that include "fundamental, comprehensive changes in leadership, staffing, and governance." Despite the attention and activity surrounding these types of school improvement models, there is a lack of research on whether or how they work. To date, most evidence has been anecdotal, as policymakers have highlighted specific schools that have made significant test score gains as exemplars of school turnaround, and researchers have focused on case studies of particular schools that have undergone one of these models. This has led to a tremendous amount of speculation over whether these isolated examples are, in fact, representative of turnaround efforts overall--in terms of the way they were implemented, the improvements they showed in student outcomes, and whether these schools actually served the same students before and after reform. To begin addressing this knowledge gap, the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research and American Institutes for Research (air) partnered to examine five different models initiated by the Chicago Public Schools (cps) in 36 schools. The goals of the study were to make clear how school reform occurred in Chicago--showing the actual changes in the student population and teacher workforce at the schools--and to learn whether these efforts had a positive effect on student learning overall. Appended are: (1) Description of Low-Performing Schools that Underwent Intervention; (2) Data and Data Sources; and (3) Research Methods and Results. (Contains 19 figures, 24 tables, 62 endnotes.).
Download or read book Turning Around Low Performing Schools in Chicago Summary Report written by Marisa de la Torre and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) partnered to examine five different models initiated by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in 36 schools. CPS was an early adopter of dramatic intervention strategies in low-performing schools, and the reforms in this study were implemented between 1997 and 2010. All of the schools were identified as chronically low performing and were reformed in ways consistent with the elements described in the school improvement models recommended by the federal government. The goals of the study were to make clear how school reform occurred in Chicago--showing the actual changes in the student population and teacher workforce at the schools--and to learn whether these efforts had a positive effect on student learning overall. Since 1997, CPS has initiated five distinct reforms that aim to dramatically improve low-performing schools in a short time. These initiatives are Reconstitution (seven high schools), School Closure and Restart (six elementary schools and two high schools), placement into the School Turnaround Specialist Program (STSP) model (four elementary schools), placement into the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) model (ten elementary schools and two high schools), and placement into the CPS Office of School Improvement (OSI) model (two elementary schools and three high schools). Main findings from the study include: (1) Elementary/middle schools that went through reform made significant improvements in test scores compared with similar schools that did not; however, large improvements did not occur immediately in the first year; (2) High schools that underwent reform did not show significant improvements in absences or ninth grade on-track-to-graduate rates over matched comparison schools, but recent high school efforts look more promising than earlier ones; (3) Schools that underwent reform generally served the same students as before intervention, with the exception of one model of reform; (4) Schools under the Closure and Restart model experienced substantial changes to their student body composition; (5) The vast majority of teachers in schools under Closure and Restart, AUSL and OSI models were not rehired after reform; and (6) The teacher workforce after intervention across all models was more likely to be white, younger, and less experienced, and was more likely to have provisional certification than the teachers who were at those schools before the intervention. School-by-School Changes in Student Achievement are appended. (Contains 1 table, 9 figures and 6 endnotes.).
Download or read book Turning Around Low performing Schools in Chicago written by Marisa De la Torre and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Changes in Student Populations and Teacher Workforce in Low Performing Chicago Schools Targeted for Reform Summary Issues Answers REL 2012 No 123 written by Marisa de la Torre and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Turning around" chronically low-performing schools is of increasing interest to educators and policymakers, as highlighted by the U.S. Department of Education's (2010) recent call to rapidly improve the nation's 5,000 lowest performing schools. Yet there is little rigorous research on changes in student populations and teacher workforce in schools undergoing interventions to improve low-performing schools. To fill this gap, this study examines turnaround intervention models intended to rapidly improve student performance in chronically low-performing schools in the Chicago Public Schools district. It analyzes the changes in student populations and teacher workforce in 31 public schools in Chicago selected for district-led reform interventions for chronically low-performing schools over 1997-2010. Two research questions guided the study: (1) Did the characteristics of students change in the intervention schools?; and (2) Did the characteristics of teachers change in the intervention schools? For the first research question, descriptive analyses compared students in the school the fall before the intervention with students in the same grades in the fall after the intervention began. For the second, descriptive analyses compared the teacher workforce in these schools for the same periods. These descriptive analyses show school-by-school changes in students and teachers organized around the intervention models. The analyses are based on the entire population of students and teachers at each school and are not statistical estimates. Comparing student enrollment the fall before the intervention and the fall after the intervention shows that: (1) Twenty-three of 31 schools served fewer students by grade after the intervention, with five schools serving at least a quarter fewer students. Four of the schools with the largest declines in enrollment were part of the closure and restart model; (2) Except for schools in the closure and restart model, schools reenrolled 55-89 percent of students eligible to reenroll. The rates were similar to reenrollment rates in the years before intervention; (3) Schools in the closure and restart model reenrolled 0-47 percent of students eligible to reenroll. Schools in this model were closed for one or two years before opening again, did not serve all the same grade levels when they reopened, and held citywide enrollment lotteries, which made it difficult for students to reenroll; and (4) The composition of the student body--in race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and special education status--in intervention schools was largely similar before and after the interventions in all models except for the closure and restart model. In that model, schools after intervention served a larger percentage of economically advantaged students and of students with higher prior achievement levels, and smaller percentages of special education students and of students residing in the neighborhood near the school. Comparing the teacher workforce the year before the intervention and the year after the intervention shows that: (1) The extent of teacher rehiring varied with the intervention model. Schools in the reconstitution model rehired 42-66 percent of teachers, and schools in the STSP model retained 44-80 percent. Schools in the closure and restart, AUSL, and OSI models rehired just 0-24 percent of teachers; and (2) In all intervention models, the teacher workforce was more likely to be White, younger, and less experienced and more likely to have provisional certification after intervention than before it. (Contains 1 note.) [For the full report, "Changes in Student Populations and Teacher Workforce in Low-Performing Chicago Schools Targeted for Reform. Issues & Answers. REL 2012-No. 123," see ED531351.].
Download or read book Changes in Student Populations and Teacher Workforce in Low Performing Chicago Schools Targeted for Reform Issues Answers REL 2012 No 123 written by Marisa de la Torre and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Turning around" chronically low-performing schools is of increasing interest to educators and policymakers, as highlighted by the U.S. Department of Education's (2010) recent call to rapidly improve the nation's 5,000 lowest performing schools. Yet there is little rigorous research on changes in student populations and teacher workforce in schools undergoing interventions to improve low-performing schools. To fill this gap, this study examines turnaround intervention models intended to rapidly improve student performance in chronically low-performing schools in the Chicago Public Schools district. It analyzes the changes in student populations and teacher workforce in 31 public schools in Chicago selected for district-led reform interventions for chronically low-performing schools over 1997-2010. Two research questions guided the study: (1) Did the characteristics of students change in the intervention schools?; and (2) Did the characteristics of teachers change in the intervention schools? For the first research question, descriptive analyses compared students in the school the fall before the intervention with students in the same grades in the fall after the intervention began. For the second, descriptive analyses compared the teacher workforce in these schools for the same periods. These descriptive analyses show school-by-school changes in students and teachers organized around the intervention models. The analyses are based on the entire population of students and teachers at each school and are not statistical estimates. Comparing student enrollment the fall before the intervention and the fall after the intervention shows that: (1) Twenty-three of 31 schools served fewer students by grade after the intervention, with five schools serving at least a quarter fewer students. Four of the schools with the largest declines in enrollment were part of the closure and restart model; (2) Except for schools in the closure and restart model, schools reenrolled 55-89 percent of students eligible to reenroll. The rates were similar to reenrollment rates in the years before intervention; (3) Schools in the closure and restart model reenrolled 0-47 percent of students eligible to reenroll. Schools in this model were closed for one or two years before opening again, did not serve all the same grade levels when they reopened, and held citywide enrollment lotteries, which made it difficult for students to reenroll; and (4) The composition of the student body--in race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and special education status--in intervention schools was largely similar before and after the interventions in all models except for the closure and restart model. In that model, schools after intervention served a larger percentage of economically advantaged students and of students with higher prior achievement levels, and smaller percentages of special education students and of students residing in the neighborhood near the school. Comparing the teacher workforce the year before the intervention and the year after the intervention shows that: (1) The extent of teacher rehiring varied with the intervention model. Schools in the reconstitution model rehired 42-66 percent of teachers, and schools in the STSP model retained 44-80 percent. Schools in the closure and restart, AUSL, and OSI models rehired just 0-24 percent of teachers; and (2) In all intervention models, the teacher workforce was more likely to be White, younger, and less experienced and more likely to have provisional certification after intervention than before it. Appended are: (1) History of Chicago's school reform efforts; (2) Description of intervention schools; (3) Data and data sources; and (4) Methodology. (Contains 2 boxes, 7 figures, 8 tables and 13 notes.) [For "Changes in Student Populations and Teacher Workforce in Low-Performing Chicago Schools Targeted for Reform. Summary. Issues & Answers. REL 2012-No. 123," see ED531352.].
Download or read book Turning Around Low performing Schools written by Educational Resources Information Center (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Leadership for Low Performing Schools written by Daniel L. Duke and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-01-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No greater challenge faces our society than improving the educational opportunities for millions of young people trapped in chronically low-performing schools. Overcoming this challenge requires talented and dedicated school leaders whose knowledge and skills extend far beyond what is covered in conventional principal preparation programs. This book draws on extensive research by the author and others on the actions needed to turn around low-performing schools. First, however, the book examines the personal qualities needed to undertake the turnaround process. Following chapters provide guidelines on diagnosing the school-based causes of low achievement and developing a school turnaround plan. The author focuses on the importance of continuous planning – a departure from standard practice. A major portion of the book is devoted to examples of first-order and second-order strategies for raising achievement. Specific recommendations for launching the turnaround process and sustaining gains beyond the first years of turnaround are provided. The concluding chapter addresses the role of school districts in supporting school-based turnaround efforts.
Download or read book Turning Around Failing Schools written by Joseph Murphy and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an in-depth examination of the causes and symptoms of degeneration and a two-part model for preventing educational collapse and crafting an effective turnaround.
Download or read book School Turnaround Policies and Practices in the US written by Joseph F. Murphy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-12 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an analysis of what we know about turning around "failing" schools in the United States. It starts with an in-depth examination of the barriers that hinder action on turnaround work. The book analyses the reasons why some schools that find themselves in serious academic trouble fail in their efforts to turn themselves around. Beginning with a discussion of what may best be described as "lethal" reasons or the most powerful explanation for failed reform initiatives, which include an absence of attention to student care and support; a near absence of attention to curriculum and instruction; the firing of the wrong people. Covered in this volume are "critical" explanations for failed turnaround efforts such as failure to attend to issues of sustainability, and "significant" explanations for failed turnaround efforts such as the misuse of test data. The volume concludes by examining what can be done to overcome problems that cause failure for turnaround schools and reviewing ideas in the core technology of schooling: curriculum, instruction, and assessment. As well as exploring problems associated with the leadership and management of schools to see where improvement is possible and an analysis of opportunities found in relationships between schools and their external partners such as parents and community members.
Download or read book School Turnaround in Secondary Schools written by Coby V. Meyers and published by IAP. This book was released on 2019-12-01 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the continuing quest to turnaround the lowest performing schools, rapid and sustainable reform, or school turnaround, seems most elusive for secondary schools. Secondary schools are rife with challenges due to their wide-ranging mission and organizational complexity. With the continued emphasis on college and career readiness and the vast learning possibilities enhanced by technology, our third book in this series, Contemporary Perspectives on School Turnaround and Reform, focuses on rapid school turnaround and reform in secondary schools. In this edited volume, researchers and scholars consider the doubly perplexing challenge of school turnaround or the rapid improvement of the lowest-performing secondary schools. Although there is some evidence that school turnaround policy can impact student achievement scores, research across international contexts seldom identifies schools that substantially changed student learning trajectories and sustained them. Separately, many societies have found improving secondary schools a relatively intractable problem for multiple reasons, including school size and complexity, the micropolitics of teaching and leading within them, and cumulative widening student achievement gaps. In combination, there are almost no examples of low-performing secondary schools turning around. The chapters in this book begin to offer some hope about how policymakers, practitioners, and researchers might begin to reconceptualize how they engage in and undertake the work of rapidly improving low-performing secondary schools. The authors provide theoretical and conceptual advancements, offer lessons learned from both successful and unsuccessful initiatives, and address practical issues with potentially accessible ways forward.
Download or read book Excluded by Choice written by Federico R. Waitoller and published by Disability, Culture, and Equit. This book was released on 2020 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is the first book examining the experiences of Black and Latinx students with disabilities and their families with market-driven educational policies. It offers a unique theoretical contribution examining the relationship between disability, race, urban space, and market-driven educational policies. It uses powerful and emotional narratives that unveil the collateral damages of market-driven policies. It explains how Black and Latinx parents of students with disabilities experience and resist pushout practices in charter schools. It identifies the consequences of pushout practices in charter schools that are more severe that forcing parents to move to another school"--
Download or read book Turning Around Low Performing Schools A Guide For State And Local Leaders Summary ED420119 U S Department Of Education written by United States. Office of Educational Research and Improvement and published by . This book was released on 1999* with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reinterpreting Urban School Reform written by Louis F. Miron and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have urban schools failed, or has reform failed urban schools? This book examines existing urban school programs, ranging from desegregation to reading improvement, in light of available historical, empirical, and case study evidence. Miron and St. John and their contributors probe the underlying theoretical, normative, and political assumptions embedded in specific reform initiatives. They explore how reforms might be reconstructed to better address the underlying challenges and they demonstrate that reforms can be constructively critiqued throughout the stages of implementation, arguing that greater attention should be paid to ethnic and cultural traditions within urban educational settings. Contributors include Leetta Allen-Haynes; Joseph Cadray; Choong-Geun Chung; Richard Fossey; Barry M. Franklin; David Gordon; Carol Anne Hossler; Siri Loescher; Kim Manoil; Genevieve Manset; Louis F. Mirón; Glenda Droogsma Musoba; Kathryn Nakagawa; Carolyn S. Ridenour; Ada B. Simmons; Edward P. St. John; Neil Theobald; Sandra Washburn; Kenneth K. Wong; and Kim Worthington.
Download or read book Teachers Guide to School Turnarounds written by Daniel L. Duke and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-08-14 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most guides to the process of turning around low-performing schools are written for principals and policy makers. Teachers, however, are the individuals expected to conduct the “heavy lifting” of school improvement. Teachers’ Guide to School Improvement is the first book on the subject written expressly for teachers. In this expanded second edition, teachers are shown a step-by-step process for raising student achievement, beginning with the diagnosis of the causes of low achievement and extending through the crucial first year of turnaround and beyond. Examples of effective turnaround practices are drawn from a variety of elementary, middle, and high schools.
Download or read book Enduring Myths That Inhibit School Turnaround written by Coby V. Meyers and published by IAP. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of school turnaround—rapidly improving schools and increasing student achievement outcomes in a short period of time—has become politicized despite the relative newness of the idea. Unprecedented funding levels for school improvement combined with few examples of schools substantially increasing student achievement outcomes has resulted in doubt about whether or not turnaround is achievable. Skeptics have enumerated a number of reasons to abandon school turnaround at this early juncture. This book is the first in a new series on school turnaround and reform intended to spur ongoing dialogue among and between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners on improving the lowest-performing schools and the systems in which they operate. The “turnaround challenge” remains salient regardless of what we call it. We must improve the nation’s lowest-performing schools for many moral, social, and economic reasons. In this first book, education researchers and scholars have identified a number of myths that have inhibited our ability to successfully turn schools around. Our intention is not to suggest that if these myths are addressed school turnaround will always be achieved. Business and other literatures outside of education make it clear that turnaround is, at best, difficult work. However, for a number of reasons, we in education have developed policies and practices that are often antithetical to turnaround. Indeed, we are making already challenging work harder. The myths identified in this book suggest that we still struggle to define or understand what we mean by turnaround or how best, or even adequately, measure whether it has been achieved. Moreover, it is clear that there are a number of factors limiting how effectively we structure and support low-performing schools both systemically and locally. And we have done a rather poor job of effectively leveraging human resources to raise student achievement and improve organizational outcomes. We anticipate this book having wide appeal for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in consideration of how to support these schools taking into account context, root causes of low-performance, and the complex work to ensure their opportunity to be successful. Too frequently we have expected these schools to turn themselves around while failing to assist them with the vision and supports to realize meaningful, lasting organizational change. The myths identified and debunked in this book potentially illustrate a way forward.
Download or read book Leading School Turnaround written by Kenneth Leithwood and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-07-13 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LEADING SCHOOL TURNAROUND Leading School Turnaround offers new perspectives and concrete, evidence-based guidelines for the educational leaders and administrators faced with the challenge of turning our low-performing schools around. Using the tools outlined in this groundbreaking book, school leaders can guide their schools to higher levels of achievement and sustained academic success. Based on research conducted in the United States, Canada, and England, Leading School Turnaround addresses in three parts the dynamic context of the turnaround environment, what turnaround leaders do, and the incredible challenges of moving from turnaround to "stay around." Filled with illustrative examples, the book outlines the best practices and behaviors successful turnaround leaders exercise. The authors include detailed information for applying the four main categories of turnaround leadership: direction setting, developing people, redesigning the school, and managing the instructional program. This important resource can help any school leader get their school back on the track to academic success.
Download or read book Turning Around the Nation s Lowest Performing Schools written by Karen Baroody and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the country, states and school districts are focusing on turning around the nation's lowest-performing schools. Unprecedented federal Race to the Top and School Improvement Grant funding accompanied by a more prescriptive approach for using the funds has raised the profile of turnaround efforts. This focus on school turnaround, while welcome, is not new. State, district, and school leaders have been trying for years to turn around persistently low-performing schools. But while some schools have made significant gains in student achievement, results overall are decidedly mixed. One of the overarching reasons for the uneven results is that districts generally have failed to recognize that persistently low-performing schools face unique challenges that require aggressive, customized, and sustained interventions. Education Resource Strategies, Inc., or ERS, has identified five steps that districts can take in designing and implementing their school improvement programs that will increase the probability that their efforts will achieve lasting improvement: (1) Understand what each school needs; (2) Quantify what each school gets and how it is used; (3) Invest in the most important changes first; (4) Customize the strategy to the school; and (5) Change the district, not just the schools. There is no silver bullet--no single solution for how to turn a failing school around. But by taking these five steps district leaders can improve their probability for sustainable and scalable success. (Contains 26 endnotes.).
