Blazing New Trails - Connexions

CRITICAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
Blazing a New Trail for the Educational Turnaround Leader
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Rayma L. Harchar
Mitzi P. Trahan
Janet G. Broussard
The belief that turnaround models from business and public sectors can be utilized to
turnaround failing schools has erupted onto the educational scene. Powered by accountability
for productive PK-12 schooling, educational policymakers have been asking for powerful
action to turnaround schools that fail to effectively educate students (Chapman, 2005; Hassel
& Steiner, 2003; Levin, 2006; Malen & Rice, 2004; Wong & Shen, 2003). Students in schools
that are designated as needing to improve student performance, many of whom are
disadvantaged, continue to fall further and further behind their peers (Herman et al., 2008).
There is nationwide agreement that the rescue plans for chronically failing schools have not
been effective (Calkins, Guenther, Belfiore, & Lash, 2007). In the United States, nearly
30,000 schools failed to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
in the 2007–08 school year which is a 28% increase from the 2006–07 school year. In
addition, approximately half of these schools missed these federally mandated achievement
goals for two or more years. In most cases, schools have tried a variety of strategies to
improve student achievement, but these strategies have not resulted in clear successes. For
example, restructuring options may include moving to a charter school structure, state
takeover, revamping administration or governance, full closure, or implementation of a
turnaround model (Klein, 2009).
As a result, one in five of the nation's public schools are currently under state
restructuring or school takeover action designed to improve student achievement (Hoff,
2009). More specifically, schools that lag behind are subject to an intervention process
constructed in three stages: improvement, corrective action, and restructuring. When a school
fails to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) two years in a row, it enters the improvement
stage. Schools in this stage engage in a process of internal school renewal. A school
improvement plan is written and they may implement research-based programs,
comprehensive school improvement models, and extended services, where districts are
required to provide assistance. If schools fail to make AYP yet another year, they enter the
stage of corrective action during which district intervention intensifies. Among other
measures, staff can be removed, curricula mandated, management authority revoked, and
instructional time extended (Herman et al., 2008). With continued decline, schools enter into
more drastic restructuring such as reconstitution, state takeover, conversion into a charter,
transfer to a private management company and other, similarly radical measures. Thus, a
school that fails to improve for five consecutive years ceases to exist in its original form
according to No Child Left Behind.
Rayma L. Harchar, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Mitzi P. Trahan, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Janet G. Broussard, University of Louisiana at Lafayette