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School Turnaround

School turn­around’s aim is to improve student out­comes by changing how schools and class­rooms operate. School turnaround involves quick, dramatic im­provement by removing factors that inhibit school growth and fail to support effective teaching and learn­ing. Turnaround schools are, by defi­nition, schools that have demonstrated that they have dramatically improved student outcomes in a short time.

State and national policy dialogue has increasingly highlighted school turnaround as a top education priority, yet often narrowly locates the causes—and thus the solutions—for persistent low performance at the school level. The Collaborative has actively wrestled with the challenges of school turnaround, and advocated for a more systemic approach that acknowledges and leverages the district role in school improvement.

February 2011

An exploration of eight California districts participating in the California Collaborative on District Reform highlighting the critical district role in supporting school improvement and student learning. The experiences of these districts—Fresno,… Read More

December 2011

December 2011 Two December events, a presentation at the California Educational Research Association (CERA) conference and a webinar hosted by SchoolsMovingUp, highlighted the Collaborative’s work regarding school turnaround. Joel Knudson,… Read More

November 2013

A new book by Collaborative member Joan Talbert, senior research scholar emerita at Stanford University, and Jane David, director of the Bay Area Research Group, tells the dramatic improvement story of Sanger Unified School District. Turning Around… Read More

September 2012

Joseph Johnson, Executive Director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) at San Diego State University, led a recent SchoolsMovingUp webinar entitled High Quality Instruction that Promotes Learning and Achievement for… Read More