School Turnaround

Turning around chronically low-performing schools requires fast action and strong direction from leaders. SEDL’s turnaround specialists are former school, district, and state leaders who have direct experience leading successful school turnarounds. Our specialists support school and district turnaround leaders by assisting them in developing turnaround plans, establishing expectations and goals, and measuring progress toward those goals.

Services We Provide

Our Center for High-Performing Schools provides long-term consulting services to support school turnarounds. We build teacher and principal effectiveness to implement comprehensive instructional reform that ensures the alignment of standards, instruction, and assessment. We also help school and district leaders develop plans and capacity for extending student learning and teacher planning, engaging families and community, increasing operating flexibility, and sustaining gains.

Strategic Support

“I think we probably all have similar challenges around identifying [low-performing] schools, making sure that we have really meaningful levels of change occur in those schools, and we’re not just being superficial about the type of interventions that we’re doing and that people actually understand the work that they’re taking on.” — Rayne Martin, Chief of Innovation, Louisiana Department of Education

Turning Around Low-Achieving Schools: A Blueprint for Reform

In July 2010, SEDL hosted the regional forum “Turning Around Low-Achieving Schools: A Blueprint for Reform.” Some 100 education leaders from Texas and states in the Southeast attended to learn more about school turnarounds and the priority areas for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Learn more

Significant Work

Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC): The SECC provides professional development and technical assistance to the state education agencies of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina to build their capacity to support low-performing districts and schools in meeting student achievement goals. Work varies by state.

Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC): The TXCC provides professional development and technical assistance to the Texas Education Agency and the state’s 20 regional education service centers to build their capacity to support low-performing districts and schools in meeting student achievement goals.

Center for High-Performing Schools: Through this Center, SEDL builds the capacity of district and school leaders to plan, implement, evaluate, and sustain school turnarounds.

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Resources

Image of publication cover Transforming Low-Performing Rural Schools: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 10
This brief examines how rural districts and schools can integrate the unique attributes and resources found in rural communities into improvement efforts to promote the transformation of low-performing schools.
Image of publication cover Southeast Comprehensive Center eBulletin, Volume 4, Number 3: Turning Around Low-Performing Schools
This issue of the Southeast Comprehensive Center eBulletin summarizes some of the best practices in turning around schools and provide readers with references and resources to gain a deeper knowledge of the literature on turning around low-performing schools and strategies to help state departments and districts in their attempt to reform challenging schools.
Image of publication cover Southeast Comprehensive Center eBulletin, Volume 3, Number 1: School Turnarounds-Recommendations, Actions, and Results
This issue of the Southeast Comprehensive Center eBulletin provides information from the Center on Improvement & Innovation and the Institute for Education Sciences regarding evidence-based practices for turning around chronically low-performing schools.

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