School Turnaround and the Paradoxes of Reform: Findings From a Longitudinal Case Study

• In Event: School Turnaround and Reform SIG Business Meeting

Abstract

This paper is a report of a two year longitudinal case study of an urban turnaround school. We screen paradoxes identified in a published analysis of turnaround school literature against empirical data collected in the case study. We found that central elements of the school’s enacted turnaround approach, such as the mass removal of teachers and the concentrated focus on improving test scores, produced conflicted, complicated results rather than the neat line of educational progress promoted by turnaround reform advocates and policymakers. These paradoxical results suggest that a gap exists between policymaker dreams and reform reality and underscore how unintended developments and unforeseen events can frustrate even the best-intentioned efforts at school improvement.

Authors

• Craig Martin Peck, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Ulrich C. Reitzug, University of North Carolina - Greensboro