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Study of School Turnaround

Project

Our nation’s lowest performing schools have traditionally struggled to offer students the instruction and supports they deeply need. The first phase of the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) Program, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, targeted $3.5 billion over three years toward the goal of turning around these schools and improving learning for students.   

Through a contract funded by the U.S Department of Education, AIR researchers are studying the change process in a set of 25 low-performing schools receiving School Improvement Grants.

Over the three-year grant period, AIR and its Mathematica partners visited a diverse set of SIG schools, interviewing stakeholders such as superintendents, principals, external support providers, instructional coaches, teachers, parents, and students.  Interviews focused on topics such as why schools had been chronically low-performing, which strategies schools chose to implement, and how implementing these strategies changed the schools.

AIR researchers analyzed qualitative data, together with data from a teacher survey, to tell the story of the schools’ change process during the grant period.  Results can be found in the publications below, which focus on the full study sample, a subsample of rural schools, and a subsample of schools with high percentages of English Language learners, respectively. The baseline data reports focus on state definitions of chronically low-performing schools, grant award procedures, and the characteristics of SIG-awarded schools.

Project Reports:

  • Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants: Findings After the First Year of Implementation
  • Building Teacher Capacity to Support English Language Learners in Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants
  • A Focused Look At Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants That Have High Percentages of English Language Learner Students
  • A Focused Look at Rural Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants
  • A Focused Look At Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants That Have High Percentages of English Language Learner Students 
  • Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible and SIG-Awarded Schools
  • School Improvement Grants: Analyses of State Applications and Eligible and Awarded Schools

Data Collection Instruments:

  • SST Year 3 Data Collection Instruments
  • SST Year 1 Data Collection Instruments
  • SST Spring 2012 Data Collection Instruments
  • SST Fall 2011 ELL Data Collection Instruments

Other Resources:

  • Profiles of School Turnaround Strategies in Selected Sites
Research Summary: How Did Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants Change? (PDF)

Related Work

Image of teachers working together
21 Nov 2019
In the Field

Nine Conditions That Helped Massachusetts Turn Around Its Schools

What should states and districts working on school improvement keep in mind about successful turnaround efforts? AIR experts have identified nine key conditions that led to successful turnaround in Massachusetts that could be useful to education leaders in other states.
18 Jan 2017
Report

School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness

The School Improvement Grant program awarded grants to states that agreed to implement one of four school intervention models—transformation, turnaround, restart, or closure—in their lowest-performing schools. This final report builds on the earlier briefs and report by including an additional year of data and by examining whether receipt of SIG funding had an impact on student outcomes.
14 Apr 2016
Report

Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants: Final Report

With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program underwent three major shifts; by increasing the level of funding, better targeting these funds to the persistently lowest-achieving schools, and requiring that schools adopt specific intervention models, the revamped SIG program aimed to catalyze more aggressive efforts to turn around student performance. This report focuses on a small sample of schools receiving SIG over the first three years of the revamped SIG program.
Kerstin Le Floch
14 Apr 2016
Blog Post

Three Things We Learned from the Study of School Turnaround

The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program will expire as ESSA is implemented, but the challenges of low-performing schools have not. SIG provided some promising examples, as well as caveats that can challenge and inform those of us who believe our nation’s most disadvantaged students deserve better. In our latest blog post, Kerstin Carlson Le Floch shares what we’ve learned from case studies of 25 schools included in the Study of School Turnaround.
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Kerstin Le Floch

Kerstin Carlson Le Floch

Managing Researcher

Topics

Education
District and School Improvement
English Language Learners

Latest News & Updates

25 Oct 2016
News Release

Student Outcomes Improve in Massachusetts Schools Receiving School Redesign Grants

14 Apr 2016
News Release

Some Long-Struggling Schools That Received Federal Grants Saw Positive Changes, But Doubts about Sustainability of “Turnaround” Linger, AIR Researchers Find

5 May 2015
News Release

New Brief by AIR, Mathematica Experts Examines States’ Capacity to Support Turnaround in Low-Performing Schools

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Related Resources

Three Things We Learned from the Study of School Turnaround

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