School Turnaround Lessons for Policy and Practice: A Systematic Review of Research and Evaluation

• In Event: School Turnaround and Reform (STaR): Community Schools

Abstract

Research on school turnaround has proliferated in the last twenty years. Related studies can largely be considered as either policy evaluations or case studies of principal action. This disconnect seems potentially inhibitive to learning what worked when, for whom, and why. To better understand this disconnect, we completed a systematic review of the turnaround literature to address how school turnaround has been conceptualized within policy and practice, primarily leadership, research, and the implications of these distinctions for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. We found that policy studies excluded the role of the principal in any turnaround effort, while practice studies lacked causal warrants and generalizable applications. We conclude that there is little to no overlap between these two sets of studies.

Authors

• Aliza Nadir Husain, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Corrie Stone-Johnson, University at Buffalo - SUNY