School districts need independent offices to manage the work of turning around low-performing schools, according to a new report from the Boston-based Mass Insight Education, which has worked on school turnarounds with districts.
Such offices should be charged with five key functions: attracting and supporting the outside partners and models working with the turnaround schools; coordinating the school-level support, including any promised autonomy; working to bring top talent into the schools; monitoring and providing oversight of turnaround schools; and working with state and local officials to get schools any financial or other resources needed.
The report also shares lessons from turnaround approaches being used by the District of Columbia, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Charlotte-Mecklenberg, N.C., school systems.
