Contrived Collegiality in a District/Charter Turnaround Model

• In Event: 28.061 - Charter School Policies and Their Impact on Stakeholders

Abstract

Both collaboration and competition have been offered as promising avenues for the turnaround of under-performing public schools. These seemingly opposite forces were in close interaction at four so-called transformation schools in New Orleans, Louisiana. This intrinsic case study collected school data and conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 of the 8 school leaders involved. We found collegiality, but of an extremely limited variety, and note the impact this may have had in the poor results of this reform effort. While this was a case in which the competitive forces were so strong the collaboration may have been impossible, we offer some revised conditions which might produce more promising results.

Authors

• Brian Robert Beabout, The University of New Orleans

• Shante Williams, University of New Orleans