School & District Management

Transformation: Most Popular School Improvement Model

July 09, 2010 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Schools receiving millions of dollars in federal money meant to reverse years of low achievement are overwhelmingly opting for “transformation,” the least disruptive of four intervention methods endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education.

With all but 11 states now approved to receive their share of the $3.5 billion in Title I School Improvement Grants, many state departments of education have announced grant awards to those eligible schools that applied and were judged to have strong plans for improvement.

That means we can start to document the number of low-achieving schools that will be shut down, restarted as charters, turned around by replacing the principal and at least half the instructional staff, or, most popularly, transformed through changes such as a longer school day, a revamping of teacher evaluations, curricular and professional development changes, and, in most cases, a new principal.

You’ll remember that when the feds originally designed the rules for how this supercharged pot of school improvement money could be used, Education Secretary Arne Duncan stressed his desire for “dramatic” actions that included converting these schools to charters and bringing in lots of fresh blood in the form of new principals and teachers. The transformation option was considered by Duncan to be the one of last resort for schools to choose, and the rules were written to limit the number of campuses that could elect for that method in districts where there are large numbers of low-performers.

Strong pushback from state and local education leaders prompted the feds to tweak the rules so that transformation was viewed as an equally viable option for school improvement as the other three, more aggressive models. (Of course, we all know that even the transformation option is not all that popular with educators, especially among rural school leaders who find the requirement to replace the principal especially challenging.)

Ok, so now that I’ve done all that throat-clearing, let’s take a look at a sample of states and the frequency of schools using transformation as a first resort.

CALIFORNIA: 164 of 188 eligible schools applied to the state department of education to receive a school improvement grant. (113 of those, because of their concentrations of poverty and years-long low performance, will have priority for funding). San Jose-based blogger John Fensterwald at educatedguess.org has a lot of the details here, but the most interesting numbers to me are these: 72 schools will use transformation; two schools will shut down entirely. (Slight clarification on these numbers, courtesy Doug McRae out in Monterey: Not all of the 164 schools that applied for a grant fall into the state’s bottom five percent, or those that are “persistently lowest achieving,” which is the main target of the federal money. Fifty-one of them are part of the state’s larger set of 3,500 schools that are technically eligible for the money, but because they don’t sit in the bottom five percent, they aren’t likely to receive funding.)

MINNESOTA: No awards have been decided yet, but of the 26 schools that applied in this state, 22 are opting for transformation, four for turnaround. It’s interesting to me that in a state with the oldest charter school law on the books, no schools elected to use the restart method.

NEW JERSEY: The state department of education has awarded just over $45 million in school improvement grants to 12 schools. Seven of those have selected the transformation model for intervention, four opted for turnaround, and one school, an alternative high school in Newark, will be restarted. That school secured $4.6 million to spend over the next three years for its interventions that the state department called the “most comprehensive reform” of all the targeted schools. No schools opted to close themselves down.

NORTH CAROLINA: Here, the state awarded 25 schools with grants. Eighteen of them will use transformation, while six are opting for the turnaround method that requires replacement of at least half the teaching staff. One school will use the restart method and none will close.

OREGON: A dozen schools in this western state will receive grants to improve performance and all of them have elected to use the transformation option.

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
Assessment Webinar
3 Key Strategies for Prepping for State Tests & Building Long-Term Formative Practices
Boost state test success with data-driven strategies. Join our webinar for actionable steps, collaboration tips & funding insights.
Content provided by Instructure
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
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
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Promoting Integrity and AI Readiness in High Schools
Learn how to update school academic integrity guidelines and prepare students for the age of AI.
Content provided by Turnitin

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 How Principals Are Shaping Education Policy Through Advocacy
Principals share advice for advocating to state and federal lawmakers on behalf of schools.
6 min read
Elementary, middle, high school principals from Missouri met senior staffers at R-Rep. Eric Schmitt's office on March 12, 2025.
Principals from Missouri met senior staffers at Republican Rep. Eric Schmitt's office on March 12, 2025. School leaders say advocacy is an important part of their job.
Courtesy of Jenny Hayes
School & District Management What the Future Holds for Summer School as Federal Aid Dries Up
Summer programs have been a go-to strategy to catch kids up and accelerate their learning. Will districts keep them with no more relief aid?
5 min read
Photo of high school students walking into class.
E+
School & District Management Infographic 9 Charts That Show the Lasting Effects of COVID on Schools
Key data on some of the move consequential changes, five years later.
3 min read
Illustration of Covid-19 impacting 3 years of school
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and Getty Images
School & District Management Opinion I Wear a Suit to School Every Day. Here's Why
You can suit up, dress down, or mix it up—but remember that what you wear sends a powerful message.
2 min read
A man in a suit exudes confidence and authority.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva