Report Details Differing Outcomes For Turnaround Schools

Education Week (9/19, Sparks) reports on a new report from the Institute of Education Sciences which explores "what makes one low-performing school turn around and build momentum over time, while another, seemingly similar school tries the same strategies but continues to struggle." The report indicates that the "interplay of school implementation with district policies and support" are key, Education Daily reports, adding, "The project used an independent method to identify chronically low-performing schools and track them from 2002-03 through 2007-08; researchers developed their own identification system because other methods to identify persistently low-performing schools for the School Improvement Fund or No Child Left Behind Act accountability differed from state to state and did not include student growth. The study schools included the lowest 5 percent of schools in each of the three states, with achievement in the bottom 15th percentile for that state and less than 40 percent student growth over time in both reading and mathematics."