District Management Journal
While school turnarounds are possible, they have proven difficult to achieve and even harder to sustain. Why are school turnarounds so challenging? The Fall 2013 issue of District Management Journal examines district turnaround efforts, the challenges, and the essentials to effecting and sustaining turnaround: searching for and developing solid leaders and aligning district efforts to raise student achievement.
Also in this issue:
Interview: Chris Cerf, New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner, sits down with our CEO John Kim and Senior Associate Jean Kim to discuss his state’s unusually high achievement gap, and what he is doing to address it. Cerf shares his views on the importance of cultivating leaders for schools, the role of the state department of education, and the tension that can arise between accountability and support in turnaround districts.
Spotlight: Why is it so difficult to sustain turnaround? When funding dries up, often the initiatives brought in as part of the turnaround effort disappear too. In “Sustaining School Turnaround,” DMGroup presents steps to help districts plan for sustaining turnaround from the outset and deploy a data-driven Academic Return on Investment framework to ensure that the most successful initiatives are preserved.
DMGroup in Action Feature: Here, we take a look back at Montclair Public Schools’ (NJ) challenge of reducing the achievement gap between students with disabilities and their peers within a context of declining state and federal funding. Working with DMGroup, Montclair Public Schools was able to analyze their practices compared with other similar districts and best practices, and take action to improve outcomes for students with disabilities and struggling students.
DMGroup in Action Feature: Learn about how Boston Public Schools (MA), working with DMGroup, developed and rapidly implemented a weighted student funding budgeting model, which increased transparency and equity and had positive results for children.
