Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in a speech to the National Charter Schools Conference on June 22, said “We need everyone who cares about public education to take on the toughest assignment of all – and get in the business of turning around our lowest-performing schools…We have a lot of money to support this work… $5 billion dollars specifically targeting turnarounds… We may never have an opportunity like this again.” (See the full transcript of the speech.)

USED recently released guidance on changes to the Title I funds, including the use of the 1003(g) School Improvement Grants. These changes, while not finalized yet, significantly alter how states and districts spend those Improvement dollars. Education Counsel produced a great summary of the proposed changes, and Mass Insight submitted a set of recommendations during the public comment period as well.

Key elements of the approach being endorsed by the administration that align with core aspects of The Turnaround Challenge and Meeting the Turnaround Challenge framework and tools include:

• Analysis of the scope, scale and parameter of the problem, resulting in the call to turn around 1,000 schools a year for the next five years (see The Turnaround Challenge Executive Summary)
• Insistence that the only way to approach the solution is to implement dramatic and transformational change (see The Turnaround Challenge Executive Summary)
• A core focus on altering operating conditions to allow principals and leadership partners more flexibility around staffing, budgeting and time (See Partnership Zones, section on Conditions) 
• The use of a portfolio of management approaches to turnaround (See A New Partnership Paradigm, section on The Turnaround Management Portfolio)
• The development of new types of partnership between school districts and private and non-profit school management organizations – what we call Lead Partners (See A New Partnership Paradigm, section on Lead Partners)

The reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is still on the radar and it is likely that school turnaround will be a key feature of any major changes. Senior Field Consultant, Michael Contompasis, recently testified and submitted written testimony to the Aspen’s Institute’s NCLB Commission.