Social Return on Investment: When a School Improvement Grant Works

• In Event: 18.071 - Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: 18.071-1 - The Journey of Improvement at the School Level

Abstract

Riverton Elementary School in Maine received an unusually large School Improvement Grant (SIG) to use the Turnaround Model to leverage change in their Literacy and English Language Arts curricula and instructional methods. Turnaround schools must replace their principal and fifty percent of staff, implement a new curriculum, support job-embedded professional development, incentivize staff through financial or career advancement, lengthen the school day, and provide operation flexibility at the school level. Riverton demonstrated fidelity to the model and raised student achievement across grade levels and subject areas. We examine observable changes in the teaching and learning culture, as well as the likely long-term social return on investment of increasing literacy resulting from this well-executed SIG.

Authors

• Rachael Lawrence, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Sharon F. Rallis, University of Massachusetts - Amherst