Dive Brief:
- On Wednesday, nonpartisan research and development company WestEd’s Center on School Turnaround released a series of materials on hiring and retaining leaders for turnaround schools.
- The materials — developed in partnership with the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, Public Impact, and the University of Virginia Darden/Curry Partnership — are intended to serve as a professional learning module for district administrators to improve their school turnaround efforts.
- Included are guides to facilitating discussions of identifying core leader competencies and managing turnaround leaders, as well as activities and presentation intended to help district and state education leaders refine their approach to school turnaround.
Dive Insight:
Turning around struggling schools is a fraught process. States have tackled it more directly in the past decade, with mixed results, in response to changes in state and federal accountability law. In many cases, extraordinary efforts have resulted in minor improvement or none at all, for a variety of reasons. One such reason is the capability and unique skill set school turnaround leaders must bring or learn.
Some districts have developed or are developing their own systemic programming to identify, recruit, and retain turnaround leaders. WestEd’s materials go one step further, serving as a guide for any district or state that would like to use them.