Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Targeted but Dramatic School Turnaround Can Successfully Increase Student Achievement, New CAP Brief Shows

  • 03/31/15

Washington, D.C. — Dramatic school improvement efforts are key to turning around underperforming schools and successfully increasing student achievement, according to the available body of research, and powerful examples from schools in Maryland, Kentucky, Kansas, and California demonstrate that school turnaround is most effective when districts take aggressive steps to rescue failing schools, a new brief from the Center for American Progress shows.

“The reality today is that hundreds of schools are chronically underperforming by virtually any standard and are in dire need of significant intervention,” said Tiffany D. Miller, Director for Education Policy at CAP. “The good news is that the research shows that school turnaround is possible when there is a combination of dramatic action and targeted resources.”

CAP’s brief summarizes the existing research on school turnaround and then profiles schools in Baltimore, Maryland; Hyden, Kentucky; Kansas City, Kansas; and Soledad, California. The analysis finds that school turnaround is not only possible, but also is most successful and meaningful when districts take aggressive steps to transform underperforming schools. Aggressive action on the part of school districts, resources and requirements, governance and staffing changes, data-driven decision making, and a focus on school culture and nonacademic supports for disadvantaged students are all part of an evidence-based set of best practices that are key to successful school turnaround.

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act currently underway in Congress, CAP recommends that federal policy prioritize strong requirements and targeted support that identifies chronically failing schools while empowering states and districts to take bold and significant steps to turn those schools around.

“A new Elementary and Secondary Education Act should require states to identify--at least--their lowest-performing 5 percent of schools and use evidence-based interventions to turn them around,” added Catherine Brown, Vice President of Education Policy at CAP.

Featured

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 New Product Awards

    Spaces4Learning is happy to announce that we’re now accepting entries for the 2026 New Product Awards! The awards program recognizes the outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered particularly noteworthy.

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • UT System Board of Regents Approves $108M Housing Complex

    The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently announced the approval of a new, $108-million housing complex at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), according to a news release. The facility will stand four stories and have a total of 456 new beds for freshmen students.