School & District Management

A School Turnaround Story in Louisville, Ky.

June 16, 2010 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

While members of Congress and policy experts continue haggling over how to fix the thousands of chronically-underperforming schools targeted under the Obama administration’s $3.5 billion School Improvement Grants program, local education leaders have already begun executing plans to shake up some of those campuses.

To understand what’s at stake and how quickly these educators must move, Education Week is following the turnaround experience of one campus, Shawnee High School, in Louisville, Ky. Today, we’ve published the first story in what will be an ongoing series.

In many ways, Shawnee is typical of a struggling, urban high school. The vast majority of students are low-income and the school sits squarely in the poorest neighborhood in the city. The graduation rate has hovered just below, or slightly above, 60 percent for several years. Student scores on state math and English/language-arts exams are anemic. Previous attempts to improve the school have mostly entailed efforts such as tweaking the daily schedule or bringing in a veteran administrator to advise and mentor the principal—the sort of things that most turnaround supporters describe as tinkering around the edges.

So it was no surprise to Shawnee’s principal or faculty when the school landed on the list of 10 schools that Kentucky would target first for turnaround under the federal grants program. For a thorough overview of the six Louisville schools that must undertake this turnaround process, read reporter Antoinette Konz’s piece from last month in the Courier-Journal.

Keith Look, Shawnee’s principal, will have more than $1.3 million to spend over the next three years (roughly $440,000 each year) to assemble the staff that he thinks can change the school’s culture and deliver the sort of “breakthrough change” that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is always talking about. One major challenge for Look— and his fellow turnaround principals— is that no one has defined what that breakthrough change looks like.

There will be much more to say about all of this as I move ahead with reporting about what happens at Shawnee and in other schools slated for turnaround. But I really want to hear from all of you.

Please leave comments here or e-mail me with your turnaround experiences so far. I want to collect as many perspectives as possible from the field, and I’d especially like to hear from educators in rural areas, where recruiting and retaining talented principals and teachers is so difficult.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Why These K-12 Administrators Left Education—and What They Did Next
What do a nurse, an emergency responder, and an AI expert have in common? They used to work in schools.
7 min read
11 people walk through a large, dark room towards the exit door, which lights up the scene in a dramatic way. People carry boxes and various bags, indicating that they are relocating or have been laid off from work. Vector illustration.
DigitalVision Vectors
School & District Management Q&A ‘A Nice and Gentle Disrupter’: Meet the New Principals of the Year
The award went to middle school principal Damon Lewis and high school principal Tony Cattani.
11 min read
Damon Lewis, the principal of Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy, and Tony Cattani, the principal of Lenape High School, receive their awards at the annual National Association of Secondary School Principals Illuminate Principal of the Year Celebration in Seattle.
From left, Damon Lewis, the principal of Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy, and Tony Cattani, the principal of Lenape High School, receive their awards at the National Association of Secondary School Principals conference in Seattle. They were both named the 2025-26 National Principal of the Year.
Courtesy of Allyssa Hynes/National Association of Secondary School Principals
School & District Management Opinion The Stunning Resignation of UVA President Jim Ryan—and Why It Matters
The university president’s departure is more than just a headline. It’s a lesson in leadership.
2 min read
Opinion Licensed Not for Reuse Wait What FCG
Canva
School & District Management In Their Own Words This Custodian Got Students to Stop Vandalizing and Take Pride in Their School
Andy Markus, the 2025 Education Support Professional of the Year, helped boost behavior and engagement in his Utah district.
5 min read
Andy Markus, the head custodian at Draper Park Middle School, in Draper, Utah, sits for a portrait during the National Education Association's 2025 Representative Assembly in Portland, Ore., on July 3, 2025. Markus was named the 2025 NEA Education Support Professional (ESP) of the Year.
Andy Markus, the head custodian at Draper Park Middle School, in Draper, Utah, sits for a portrait during the National Education Association's 2025 representative assembly in Portland, Ore., on July 3, 2025. Markus was named the 2025 NEA Education Support Professional of the Year for his mentorship of students.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week