Chapter 12: Turning Around from Within: Using Internal Capacity to Improve Low-Performing Schools

Around the nation, there is intense interest in the question of what it takes to turn around a low-performing school. A common policy framework for addressing chronically underperforming schools is that turnaround efforts should be initiated and led by an external force, district, or source of pressure, and that drastic measures be taken in order for real change to occur. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education provided $4 billion toward supporting states in turning around their lowest performing schools. States were required to select one of four intervention models that represented varying levels of upheaval that would strip schools from their essential elements—either their leadership, their teachers, or their very operational structure—to create improvement. Some thought even these approaches weren’t going far enough. In response to this legislation, one education policymaker wrote, “Stop trying to fix failing schools. Close them and start fresh.”¹