“We Are Ready and Willing to Do the Work”: Teachers’ Experiences With the Early Stages of Turnaround in Philadelphia

• In Event: An Educational Renaissance? School Transformation, Turnaround, and Restart in Chicago and Philadelphia

Abstract

Objectives:
Though the theory of action underlying the turnaround model assumes that dramatic student improvement will occur only when the staff is qualified and committed (Herman, Dawson, Dee, Greene, Maynard, Redding, & Darwin, 2008), research has not yet investigated how teachers experience school turnaround. This study, which examines teachers’ perspectives in the early stages of the turnaround process, aims to contribute to the growing body of research on turnarounds by showing how teachers experience the reform, specifically how it affects their sense of self-efficacy and job satisfaction.

Perspectives:
Here we define satisfaction as the extent to which teachers enjoy their work and believe it is meaningful and self-efficacy as teachers’ belief that they can positively impact student behavior and achievement. Research has demonstrated that work conditions influence job satisfaction and self-efficacy, which then affect job performance, employee turnover, and organizational effectiveness (Reyes & Shin, 1995; Rimm-Kaufman & Sawyer, 2004; Tschannen-Moran & McMaster, 2009).

Methods/Data:
This paper is part of a larger mixed-methods study conducted on the implementation of school-turnaround in the first cohort of schools in Philadelphia’s Renaissance School Initiative (N=13). Six of the thirteen schools were designated district-managed, while seven schools were taken over by charter managers, which functioned as external turnaround teams. For this analysis, we focus on data, collected in focus groups, about teachers’ experiences during the early implementation phase (fall 2010). In total, 86 teachers from the 13 schools participated in 25 focus groups.

Results:
In some respects, teachers’ perspectives were constant across all schools. At all schools, teachers spoke of sharing the sense of urgency inherent to the turnaround model and believed that the additional resources and attention would allow them to contribute to students learning in important ways. The sense of urgency and of creating a “fresh start” seems to have contributed to strong feelings of collegiality, which were often fostered by an intensive orientation and shared planning time. Teachers also expressed concern about the large numbers of new teachers in their settings. They worried that this lack of experience undermined their effectiveness.

In other ways, teachers’ responses varied by school and provider. In some cases, the intensive focus on instruction and accompanying monitoring of teachers’ practice felt intrusive, while in other cases, where teachers felt the expectations were clear and support was sufficient, it was seen as helpful. For example, in the schools run by the district, many teachers were frustrated by the frequent “walkthroughs,” in which administrators documented compliance with demands that the teachers saw as arbitrary and tangential to their real purposes. In other schools, the teachers saw these visits as useful, especially when linked with clear, constructive feedback.

Significance:
The success or failure of school turnarounds depends on the ability of teachers to implement ambitious reforms, stay committed to their students, and work with one another in stressful situations. For this reason, it is essential to learn more about how teachers experience turnaround and which factors do, or do not, contribute to their own sense of satisfaction and self-efficacy.

Authors

• Maia B. Cucchiara, Temple University

• Erin Elizabeth Rooney, Temple University

• Claire Robertson-Kraft, University of Pennsylvania