School turnaround’s aim is to improve student outcomes by changing how schools and classrooms operate. School turnaround involves quick, dramatic improvement by removing factors that inhibit school growth and fail to support effective teaching and learning. Turnaround schools are, by definition, schools that have demonstrated that they have dramatically improved student outcomes in a short time.
State and national policy dialogue has increasingly highlighted school turnaround as a top education priority, yet often narrowly locates the causes—and thus the solutions—for persistent low performance at the school level. The Collaborative has actively wrestled with the challenges of school turnaround, and advocated for a more systemic approach that acknowledges and leverages the district role in school improvement.