Report analyzes the progress of restarts that began between 2010 and 2016
Explore Eight Years of Data in Interactive Restart Dashboard, Progress Report
By Paola Gilliam and Sharon Kebschull Barrett When a school struggles to support student learning year after year, schools need dramatic changes, but for too long the choice seemed to be to close the school or attempt an internal turnaround. How has the third option—restarting a school with the same students but with a new […]
Did Indianapolis students do better after struggling schools were restarted? A new study takes a look.
Chalkbeat, November 1, 2019, by Stephanie Wang When Indianapolis Public Schools “restarted” chronically struggling schools, students who stayed under the new management sometimes made smaller gains on tests compared to their classmates who left, a new study finds. Over time, however, students at the restarted schools closed some of the gaps. The study by Public […]
Early Indianapolis Restarts Shed Light About Improvement Strategy
Districts are increasingly joining with external providers—often charter operators—to implement “restarts” as one way to turn around persistently struggling schools. In a restart, a school continues to serve the same community, while its new provider receives operational autonomy in exchange for a contractual commitment to raise student outcomes. Our ongoing research has documented more than […]
Learning from Project L.I.F.T.: Legacy of a Public-Private School Turnaround Initiative
Report examines successes, challenges, and lessons from a private-public district turnaround initiative.
Autonomous District Schools: A New Path to Growing High-Quality, Innovative Public Schools
Report illuminates how districts are implementing autonomous district schools to gain charter-like flexibilities and opportunities.
Achievement Zone Transformation: A Georgia School District Raises Achievement with a Turnaround Strategy
American School Board Journal, October 2018, by Nora K. Carr
When Georgia’s Fulton County Schools formed its Achievement Zone, the district hoped to improve a cluster of 10 schools characterized by poverty and low achievement. Three years later, strategies forged in the Achievement Zone are transforming the entire district, thanks to the school board’s willingness to take the calculated risks necessary.
Thought Leadership Forum Brief: Talent Development and Opportunity Culture
Center on School Turnaround, July 2018
This brief summarizes the information presented in the March and April 2018 forums, which addressed Opportunity Culture as a strategy to support talent development. The March presentation was by Bryan Hassel, Co-President of Public Impact. The April forum featured Denise Watts, who leads Project LIFT, a philanthropic initiative that is implementing an Opportunity Culture program in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
The Secret to Sustainable School Reform: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Report examines the in-district turnaround model and its impact on student achievement.
Opportunity Culture Voices: Extending Great Teachers’ Reach in Turnaround (or Any) Schools
What does the start of a school turnaround look like? When Mark Johnson left West Charlotte High School as his Teach for America stint ended, he likely could not have imagined a bright future for the school. I arrived a year later, in 2009. The high-poverty, highly segregated school was struggling, and I stayed only […]
How 2 Pioneering Blended-Learning Teachers Extended Their Reach
What makes blended learning different in an Opportunity Culture? As two pioneering high school teachers in North Carolina show in new vignettes, blended learning gives them a tool to reach 40 to 100 percent more students per class period with great teaching. Students alternated days between classroom instruction with their blended-learning teacher and working from […]
Free Tools for Teacher-Leaders, Turnaround Principals
Start off the new year with support from a large selection of new, free tools from Public Impact. Whether you are leading a teaching team or leading a school—especially one attempting a turnaround—you’ll find tools based on research and the practices of the best Opportunity Culture teacher-leaders and principals nationally.