Large numbers of schools across the country are low performing and have been for years. This longstanding, widespread problem reveals that districts and states, as well as schools, wrestle with how to turn around struggling schools. Federal policy can play a key role in rectifying the systemic failures that allow schools to flounder. The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is a ripe opportunity to revise the law’s main program that supports school turnaround, the School Improvement Grant fund.
Join us as we release two new publications on school turnaround. One explores how four states have responded to the federal turnaround program. The second explores how pioneering districts have called on charter schools to turn around chronically low-performing high schools.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) will provide opening remarks on the importance of school turnaround. A panel discussion will follow, drawing lessons from state and district turnaround efforts to inform the reauthorization of ESEA.