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22 Mar 2016
Report

Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants: First Year Findings

Kerstin Carlson Le Floch, Beatrice Birman, Jennifer O'Day, Steven Hurlburt, Diana Mercado-Garcia, Rose Goff, Karen Manship, Seth Brown, and Susan Bowles Therriault, AIR
Linda Rosenberg, Megan Hague Angus, and Lara Hulsey, Mathematica Policy Research
Thomas E. Wei, Institute of Education Sciences

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.

Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants examines the first year of SIG implementation (2010–11) in a diverse sample of 25 schools from 13 districts and 6 states.

Key findings include:

  • The 25 schools differed in their community and fiscal context, their performance and reform history, and their interpretation of the causes of—and potential solutions for—their performance problems.
  • Approaches to leadership varied across the 25 schools, with most principals exhibiting a mix of transformational, instructional, and strategic leadership qualities.
  • The 25 schools identified 11 improvement strategies and actions, most often increasing professional development activities, replacing the principal, and increasing learning time. Most of the schools did not perceive SIG as the primary impetus for change: just 7 of the 25 schools experienced a disruption from past practice, and in 19 of the 25 schools, the improvement strategies and actions in the first year of SIG were a continuation of activities or plans that predated SIG.
  • All but one of the 25 schools perceived improvement in at least some areas, most often a safe and orderly school climate, and teacher collaboration. Schools that perceived the most improvements were more likely to have experienced a disruption from past practice, and to have principals with higher levels of strategic leadership.
Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants

Related Projects

Project

Study of School Turnaround

The U.S. Department of Education has invested substantial funds in turning around the nation’s lowest performing schools and has contracted with AIR to examine how schools’ receiving federal school improvement grants (SIGs) are changing over time.

Related Work

26 Nov 2014
Brief

Building Teacher Capacity to Support English Language Learners in Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants

Federal School Improvement Grants support turnaround efforts in the nation’s lowest-performing schools, including many that serve a large number of English Language Learner Students. This brief focuses on 11 of these schools with high proportions of ELLs, describing their efforts to improve teachers' capacity for serving ELLs through staffing strategies and professional development.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement
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.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement
14 Apr 2016
Blog Post

Le Floch Kerstin.jpg

Kerstin Le Floch

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.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Further Reading

  • Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants: Final Report
  • Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible and SIG-Awarded Schools
  • A Focused Look at Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants That Have High Percentages of English Language Learner Students
  • Study of School Turnaround
  • Building Teacher Capacity to Support English Language Learners in Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants
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Kerstin Le Floch

Kerstin Carlson Le Floch

Managing Researcher

Topic

Education
District and School Improvement
English Learners

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