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In the end of spring 2008, Sterling Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina was in bad shape. Only 29% of students tested at proficient or above in both mathematics and reading, compared to 52% in 2006. Sterling Elementary was a part of a group of schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) that were performing poorly and in two years time had lost much of the progress they had made. CMS was participating in a cycle of school failure.
The cycle looks like this:
Persistently poor performance –> Declining expectations (faculty, students, and families) –> teachers & families with options leave –> Remaining students fall further behind and have higher needs –> Resource levels and expertise no longer match needs –> Leaders & teachers have less capacity to collaborative & adjust instruction.
In order to raise student performance, the cycle would have to be broken, which required several ‘cycle-breaker’ components:
- Strong leaders who build high expectations and ownership
- Effective teachers with a proven track record
- Collaborative teacher teams
- Removal of teachers who would hinder reform
- Expertise and resources to serve students who have fallen far behind their peers
As the work continued to break the cycle, several principles were established:
- Schools must receive support over a period of time to ensure sustained improvement
- ‘One size does not fit all;’ among low-performing schools, different characteristics might require different strategies
- Strategies must align with district priorities and state requirements
- Strategies should incorporate lessons from national and CMS best practice
Developing the First Turnaround Strategy: Achievement Zone
The first part of a turnaround strategy is to identify the schools that are in the most need of assistance so they are the ones to receive resources, such as good teachers, effective principals, and support staff. The achievement zone consisted of:
- Eleven schools, not in a geographic cluster
- Mix of high, middle, and elementary schools
- Schools that can move in and out of the achievement zone as their performance changes
- Achievement zone schools that are first in line for resources
- More central support and oversight than the other schools
There were key questions that led the turnaround:
- What is the Strategic Staffing Initiative model and what refinements has CMS made to it?
- How does Strategic Staffing work to turn around schools in the context of an overarching accountability strategy?
- What are the key success factors for implementing Strategic Staffing?
The five main tenets of developing the Strategic Staffing Initiative:
- A great leader is needed, a principal with a proven track record of success in increasing student achievement.
- A team needs to go to the school so a person is not alone in taking on this challenging assignment.
- Staff members who are disruptive and not supportive of reform need to be removed.
- Principals must be given the time and authority to reform the schools.
- Not all job assignments are equal in difficulty and compensation should be varied to match.
Putting Strategic Staffing in the Context of an Overall Accountability Framework and Reform Strategy
The three key elements of the CMS overall framework that will help evaluate school performance are school progress reports, school quality reviews, and school improvement plans.
Refining the Strategic Staffing Initiative Model
Feedback from principals indicated that they would prefer to spend more time with their schools before having to make changes to the staff. CMS leaders decided to make sure that no single school lost more than three people. The CMS leadership decided that the principals should have a more formalized training and preparation process to take on turnaround schools.
Recognizing Key Success Factors
CMS teams point out several factors at the district, state, and national level that are important in the turnaround:
- The CMS Board of Education had adopted a Theory of Action in 2006 that supported reform and accountability.
- One of the most important elements was a courageous superintendent.
- Strong district support for the principals involved in Strategic support.
- North Carolina is a right-to-work state, meaning that requiring union membership is prohibited and that makes it easier to implement Strategic Staffing.
- U.S. Department of Education is focusing on teacher effectiveness.
Identifying Challenges in Implementation
There was a lack of principals to bring into the schools so the district used principals trained by the New Leaders for New Schools program.
Measuring Impact of Strategic Staffing Initiative
The district has been watching a series of metrics:
- Student attendance
- Number of disciplinary occurrences
- Teacher retention
- Academic Yearly Progress status
- Teacher survey results
From 2008 to 2009 Sterling Elementary was in a different place. Mathematics scores rose 23% and reading jumped 14%. Other schools within the cluster showed similar, dramatic gains.
Going forward with cycle-breakers the schools will clearly define and measure teacher effectiveness, base teacher recruitment and selection on effectiveness, not on qualifications, recruit and retain top talent for school-level positions; and will revise compensation structures to reflect a focus on performance.
Conclusions
The components of an effective turnaround strategy include:
- A transformational leader who can build a culture of high expectations and ownership of student outcomes.
- High-capacity teams of teachers with know-how and expert support to collaborate to adjust instruction using assessment data on student progress.
- School designs that prioritize core academics and provide time and individualized interventions for students to catch up.
- Resources and central support to implement their turnaround vision.
As the report summarized, “Ultimately, at the core of the Strategic Staffing Initiative is the belief held by CMS leadership that all students deserve a great principal and excellent teachers.”
