The Messy Work of School Turnaround: Teachers’ Experiences in Two Underperforming Urban Middle Schools

• In Event: School Turnaround in Urban Contexts

Abstract

Policymakers and practitioners have recently turned their focus to strategies for school turnaround. A minority of these schools have experienced success at improving student performance and researchers have begun to document these cases. The research available relies largely on post-hoc analyses and is premised on the assumption that models detailing “how to do it” are most informative. This study provides empirical evidence that challenges and deepens the current research on turnaround strategies. Our work takes an alternative perspective from existing research that documents exemplary models of improvement and turnaround. Rather, our data illustrate the complexity of the process, capturing the real-time experiences of teachers who are doing turnaround work in challenging urban schools and whose successes are not easily defined.

Authors

• Megin Charner-Laird, Salem State University

• Stacy Agee Szczesiul, University of Massachusetts - Lowell