District-Led School Turnaround: A Case Study Of One U.S. District’s Turnaround Launch For Multiple Schools

ABSTRACT

In the last 20 years, the United States has spent billions of dollars on policies and programs to turn around, or rapidly improve, its lowest-performing schools. Little consideration has been given to the critical role the school district plays in launching and shaping school turnaround. This case study of one mid-sized urban district’s effort to prioritize a subset of its schools is one of few empirical studies about how district leadership can be intentional in the ways it supports traditionally low-performing schools. Study results suggest that district leaders can take a number of focused, bold actions to initiate system-wide change.

Notes

1. The data source for all school- and district-level information is the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data unless otherwise noted.