The Four Domains
Turnaround Leadership
When focusing on the Turnaround Leadership domain, state, district, and school levels collaborate to improve struggling schools, emphasizing their interdependence. They swiftly implement policies, allocate resources, and hire staff to drive rapid progress. When coordinating efforts, they tailor turnaround plans to local needs, use data, and take responsibility to ensure all students receive a quality education.
How to Apply the Practices
The Four Domains practices are action items for state, district, and school leaders. There is no set order for implementing the practices, and a turnaround plan should prioritize them. Ideally, many practices may be started simultaneously, but focusing on too many at once can be counterproductive.
Prioritize Improvement and Communicate Its Urgency
- Set the strategic direction for the turnaround and establish clear policies, structures, and expectations for constituents to work toward ambitious improvement goals.
- Articulate a commitment to turning around the lowest performing schools and advocate fiercely across audiences for these schools.
- Closely monitor, discuss, report, and act upon the progress of schools undertaking rapid improvement.
School-Based Example
Develop leadership teams and, within the school staff, build leadership capacity for turnaround. Increasingly distribute leadership among faculty and staff to solidify commitment, increase collaboration, and provide faculty and staff with new challenges to keep them meaningfully engaged in the turnaround effort. Share turnaround priorities with students, faculty, and the school community, leveraging local media outlets to announce the school’s commitment to change and to enlist parent and community partners in the effort.
Desired Future State
Members of the school community feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as they surface ideas that may conflict with historical or current practices. Opportunities to surface ideas are available at least monthly.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create opportunities for staff members to understand and empathize with the challenges faced by students.
- Make it clear that the school is one of only a few places that effect change for students.
- Inspire staff members to embrace the opportunity to improve student lives.
- Set the tone of urgency and the importance of substantial improvement.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How often are leaders meeting with staff around the school’s mission and vision?
- Are the conversations collaborative?
- What is the vision for student learning?
- How are school leaders supporting community members to feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as they surface ideas that may conflict with historical or current practices?
Desired Future State
A vision for teaching and learning that is anchored in shared values and connects with all community members is routinely shared and sharpened.
Strategies and Suggestions
Step 1: Lead collaborative conversations to build a shared vision by setting aside time for focused discussions in which the leadership team and entire school staff have an opportunity to
- identify shared values;
- acknowledge contextual opportunities and challenges, such as school pride, demographic shifts, achievement gaps, and other challenges;
- develop and reinforce a shared vision focused on student learning with an emphasis on establishing core values that drive action;
- build improvement plans based on the vision;
- regularly assess progress toward achieving the vision; and
- revise or fine-tune improvement plans based on progress
Develop clear meeting agendas at the department, grade, or team level focused on building shared understandings of
- teaching pedagogy;
- student learning outcomes;
- student work;
- grading;
- best practices in the school, district, and field;
- vision gaps (the distance between where we are and where we want to be); and
- the work needed to move the school forward toward achieving the vision.
Step 2: Enact the shared vision, including by clearly defining the leadership roles (principal, assistant principal, dean, guidance counselor, coordinator, department chair, etc.) with instructional leadership role responsibilities.
Activate and support distributed instructional leadership.
- Clearly define leadership roles (principal, assistant principal, dean, guidance counselor, coordinator, department chair, etc.) with instructional leadership role responsibilities.
- Activate and support distributed instructional leadership.
- Clearly define formal and informal leadership roles in terms of how they support student learning.
- Provide professional development and support to enable distributed leadership to have the capacity to carry out the vision.
- Legitimize distributed leadership roles through clear communication of expectations with the entire school community.
Focus leadership on providing the tools to achieve the vision.
- Continually reframe “Why we can’t” to “How we ”
- Hold all staff members, including naysayers, accountable to the shared vision.
- Clearly communicate vision-aligned actions to district staff and community members and seek resources and support to carry out plans to achieve the vision.
- Retell success stories to staff, students, and the community to provide a pathway for future success.
Step 3: Continually reinforce the importance and centrality of the vision; keep the vision in front of the staff at all times.
- Include a vision tagline or statement on agendas and communications with staff; use it in morning announcements.
- With staff, regularly review data on progress toward achieving the vision and remaining gaps.
- Frame the rationale for implementing new initiatives in terms of their proven ability to address the vision gaps.
- Continue problem-solving progress.
Use symbolic action to reinforce the importance and centrality of the vision.
- Refuse to get sidetracked with other topics during staff meetings, staff development sessions, and so on.
- Utilize meeting techniques such as establishing meeting agendas in advance and using parking lots to emphasize the importance of defining the focus of collaborative conversations.
- Celebrate staff and student successes that align with the school’s vision.
- Invite staff to develop creative problem-solving activities and ideas to address vision gaps and reward those who effectively fill those gaps.
- Provide training for administrators and teacher-leaders on effective meeting facilitation.
- Hold teacher-leaders accountable for instructional improvement by regularly discussing department- or grade-level progress and challenges in leadership team meetings.
- Recognize that leadership is challenging and include problem-sharing and problem-solving discussions in the leadership team and department- or grade- level discussions.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are leaders publicly advocating for the lowest performing schools and the turnaround process?
- What steps need to be established for this advocacy process, and who is accountable?
Desired Future State
It is clear which individuals have instructional leadership roles, and the supports are in place to facilitate their growth in these roles.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Identify strong instructional leaders and enlist them to help spread excellent instruction.
- Build instructional leadership capacity in others through expanded leadership opportunities, professional learning, leadership coaching and feedback, and the development of collaborative instructional leadership teams.
- Selectively tap into district-provided instructional supports to accelerate the work of instructional leaders.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Who are the instructional leaders in the building?
- Are instructional leadership roles such as department chair, grade-level leads, team leaders, and so on formally defined?
- How are leadership skills being developed for those staff members who are in instructional leadership roles?
- What tools, systems, and structures need to be established to give turnaround school leaders adequate decision-making authority and autonomy?
Desired Future State
Frequent teacher collaboration processes for using student data to improve teaching practices are developed, documented, practiced, and supported.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 1.1.50 below.
Desired Future State
Regular opportunities are created for teachers to talk about student goals and develop strategies, with ongoing reflection about their effectiveness.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Encourage school and district leaders to ensure that teachers have adequate time for collaboration.
- Develop, implement, and monitor a plan for training teachers in protocols for collaboration meetings.
- Continue to provide collaboration time for teachers as they strive to become a professional learning community.
- Promote a culture of learning that communicates and supports high expectations for all students, including the most underserved and vulnerable.
- Review the structure of time in the Examine how much time is available daily, weekly, monthly, and annually for teachers to collaborate.
- Ensure that different ways of knowing and expressing knowledge are valued, defined, and measured.
- Ensure that teachers confidently communicate that all students are capable of engaging in challenging work.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- When and where are teachers’ discussions around teaching and instruction taking place?
- What are the expectations from the leadership team regarding what teachers discuss?
- Are there protocols in place to discuss student learning data? Improving teaching practices?
- What opportunities exist for team leaders to share ideas, advice, and information about the school and how could they best be moved forward?
- What accountability do individual teachers and teacher teams have for effective participation in collaborative groups?
- What do leaders do to follow up on the development of instructional strategies?
- What support or guidance do teams receive to ensure that they are focusing on the problems of teaching and learning?
- Are teachers given the opportunity for ongoing reflection?
- How can this kind of reflection be modeled in larger staff meetings?
Desired Future State
The school leadership team’s function, decision-making process, and decisions are effectively communicated to the staff.
Strategies and Suggestions
Consider the following points for planning school improvement team meetings.
- Develop a schedule for school improvement team meetings.
- Ensure that key community members who are not on the school improvement team know how to contribute thoughts and ideas to the meetings.
- Establish an agenda template or protocol with adequate time for discussion of all items.
- Ensure that relevant materials are accessible to all
Consider the following points for conducting engaging school improvement team meetings.
- Adhere to a protocol
- Report on the progress of key strategies
- Ensure adequate time to discuss selected guiding questions that deepen understanding
- Make decisions and agree on any adjustments to previously agreed-on plans
- Get clarity and commitment on the next steps around what is being done, by whom, and by what date.
Consider the following points for translating school improvement team meetings into results.
- Provide timely minutes (or communication) after each school improvement team meeting.
- Proceed with follow-up actions, paying attention to progress indicators and
- Engage in self-reflection on what worked well and what needs improvement
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Does a leadership team exist?
- How often does the team meet?
- What are the functions of this team?
- What opportunities exist to broaden the representation of voices at the table?
- Do all voices at the table have a meaningful opportunity to influence decisions?
- How are school leaders making school leadership team members feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as they confront tensions that may exist between current practices and desired practices?
Desired Future State
Frequent and understandable communications regarding school improvement progress are made available to the community at large.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Determine who is responsible for monitoring the school improvement plan.
- Determine how members of the school community are engaged in the process of collecting data, analyzing data, and proposing adjustments to the plan.
- Ensure that there is adequate time and trust for confronting and resolving tensions that may exist between what is in the plan and what is happening in the school.
- Make data highly visible and transparent to all members of the school community, including data showing progress toward goals and changes to proposed actions.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How is the school improvement process communicated?
- Who is responsible for ensuring the school improvement process is communicated to the school community at large?
- What processes are monitored throughout the school year to track progress on school improvement goals? Which data are collected for this purpose and by whom?
- What student outcome data are monitored throughout the school year to track progress on school improvement goals?
Monitor Short- and Long-Term Goals
Practice Description
- Develop goals informed by assessments of recent performance trends and identify practices aimed at realizing a clearly articulated turnaround vision of significantly improved student learning.
- Establish milestones for gauging progress. Continually update timelines and tasks to maintain the pace needed to accomplish meaningful goals quickly.
- Respond to regular feedback on progress toward goal-directed milestones and make timely changes in policy, programs, and personnel to get on track in achieving desired results for students.
- Capitalize on initial turnaround successes and momentum to shift the focus from the change itself to incorporating and establishing effective organizational processes, structures, and interactions that contribute to continuous organizational processes.
School-Based Example
Develop and update the turnaround plan to ensure that it has clear short- and long-term goals. Monitor the progress of strategy implementation and make changes in personnel, programs, and methods as needed to keep the effort on track. Intervene swiftly if waning progress is detected.
Desired Future State
A school improvement plan is developed, actively used, and shown to improve instruction.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Write specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that articulate clear targets, actions, and timelines aligned with the school’s mission and vision.
- Provide support and coaching to grade-level and content-specific collaborative teams at every grade level to develop quarterly SMART goals for all core subject areas.
- Administrators support individual teachers in developing and monitoring individual SMART goals that support the goals of the collaborative team.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Has a school improvement plan been developed?
- What are your school turnaround goals?
- How is success defined regarding meeting school turnaround goals?
- How can the plan be used to monitor and improve student learning?
Desired Future State
Data from formative assessments of student learning are used to set and evaluate progress toward meeting goals for improving student learning.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 1.2.30 below.
Desired Future State
Data from formative assessments of student learning are used to set and evaluate progress toward meeting goals for improving student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Work toward clarity and precision when identifying school-based goals that match the vision for success to improve student outcomes.
- Work with the staff and school community to set high-impact, ambitious, long-term goals that result in high levels of achievement.
- Use assessment data to identify areas of student need through conversations with teacher teams.
- After establishing goals, create short-term objectives that enhance student Utilize these short-term objectives as progress indicators to measure change toward priority goals.
- Develop action plans aligned with the vision by analyzing data to determine the current state of low school performance, identifying root causes for that low performance and planning strategies to address root causes and achieve goals.
- Use opportunities for different ways of knowing and of expressing knowledge, as success is defined and measured in many ways.
- Ensure that all students have the opportunity to develop their higher order thinking skills.
- Use data, such as from surveys, on access and opportunities to learn in order to analyze and identify inequities.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How is progress on data-referenced goals monitored, tracked, and communicated?
- What measures are monitored to identify successes and challenges in student outcomes for school turnaround?
- How are data used to customize support for turnaround and improvement efforts?
Desired Future State
The school improvement plan is monitored frequently based on embedded milestones, and adjustments are made if necessary.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Make adjustments to the school improvement or action plans based on data; discontinue unsuccessful strategies if appropriate. As goals are achieved, include additional areas of focus.
- Clearly articulate the implementation actions required of adults and schedule implementation For each strategy, there are two levels of accountability: Was the strategy implemented with fidelity and intentionality, and did the strategy improve student outcomes?
- Examine all teacher and leadership activities to identify the essential actions; focus time and effort on high-leverage actions and eliminate those actions not contributing to student growth.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Is the school action plan or improvement plan monitored frequently?
- Are adjustments being made when necessary based on progress toward goals?
- What structures or processes are in place to assess whether improvement efforts are successful?
- Who is accountable for creating timelines and updating the team regarding continuous progress?
- Who is accountable at each level to monitor and report changes in student outcomes?
Desired Future State
All goals are growth-oriented, practice-based, and practical in nature.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Relentlessly work to build a high level of cohesion around academic culture, goals, relationship building, instructional excellence, and so on.
- Identify meaningful shifts in adult practice that are SMART.
- Articulate what school leaders, teachers, and other staff are doing differently as a result of implementing strategies aligned with effective turnaround practices.
- Include measurable indicators that show student learning and tasks are improving due to the changes in educator practice and that show the school is making progress toward meeting its annual goal for student achievement.
- Measurable indicators address academic and nonacademic areas of student success and meet the SMART determination.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Are all goals growth-oriented?
- Are all goals based on instructional and leadership practices?
- What does success look like for classroom teachers and students at the school?
- What are high-impact, ambitious, long-term goals that could result in the school reaching high levels of student achievement?
- What are high-priority, short-term goals for targeted “early wins” to use as proof points of success?
- How are you reducing time spent on unrelated activities to ensure focus on priorities?
Customize and Target Support to Meet Needs
Practice Description
- Provide customized, targeted, and timely support for turnaround efforts.
- Align support to ensure coherence and integration with other necessary initiatives; eliminate unnecessary initiatives.
- Regularly monitor progress to identify support needs and then act quickly and competently to address those needs.
School-Based Example
Identify the priority needs of the school, focusing on three to five immediate priorities. Request flexibility with established policies and/or procedures as justified by the data, turnaround plan, and school capacity.
Desired Future State
Regular instructional programs and student support services have similar goals.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Build a professional learning plan to address instructional strategies to support multi-lingual learners.
- Ensure teachers and members of the student support services have time to collaborate with one another to develop student goals and instructional strategies to meet the needs of specialized populations.
- Have teachers use student achievement data to plan differentiated instruction for multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and all students at risk of not scoring at the proficient level.
- Provide professional development in differentiated instruction and use data to plan instruction. Monitor the implementation of effective strategies and determine if teachers need additional training.
- Offer all students many opportunities to develop cognitive skills, preparing them for advanced academic tasks.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How do the school leaders develop similar goals for all students, including for students designated as English language learners and those identified for special education? How is this communicated to all interested parties?
- How has learning for most students improved through regular instructional programs and student support services? What inconsistencies are found?
- To what extent does professional development focus on special populations, monitoring for effectiveness and results?
Desired Future State
Carefully analyzing and describing data to identify school improvement needs is a clear priority for school leaders.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Communicate the importance of using data to identify student needs by embracing needs assessment processes.
- Communicate the findings from needs assessment processes to all community members.
- Publicly commit to investing time and resources to improving areas of relative weakness identified by the needs assessment.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Who determines which interim assessments to administer and analyze?
- Who is accountable for analyzing and reporting the results of the interim assessments?
- How are the results of the interim assessments reported to everyone involved?
- How does the analysis connect to school improvement needs?
Desired Future State
District consultants fully understand current problems in the school, their work is relevant to school needs, and they support the school as changes they suggest are implemented.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Engage district consultants to support student learning or professional development to expand school-level capacity.
- Share relevant data and context with district consultants so they better understand current problems.
- Ensure that the work provided by district consultants is directly relevant to school needs.
- Request that district consultants adjust support as needed to ensure that support has the intended impact.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Which district experts have been used to support student learning or professional development?
- Do the district experts have an understanding of the issues currently facing the school? How is this assessed or communicated?
- Is the work of the district experts relevant to the school’s current needs?
- Do the district experts support the school as the changes they suggest are implemented?
- How are leaders selectively tapping into district-provided instructional supports to accelerate the work of turnaround efforts?
- What opportunities does the district provide to support turnaround efforts, professional learning opportunities, school-to-school collaboration, curriculum resources, and incentives?
Desired Future State
External consultants fully understand current problems in the school, their work is relevant to school needs, and they support the school as changes they suggest are implemented.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Engage external consultants to support student learning or professional development to expand school-level capacity.
- Share relevant data and context with external consultants so they better understand current problems.
- Ensure that the work provided by external consultants is directly relevant to school needs.
- Request that external consultants adjust support as needed to ensure that supports have the intended impact during implementation.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Which external experts have been used to support student learning or professional development?
- Do the external experts have an understanding of the issues currently facing the school? How is this assessed or communicated?
- Is the work of the external experts relevant to the school’s current needs?
- Do the external experts support the school as changes they suggest are implemented?
- How are leaders selectively tapping into consultant expertise to accelerate the work of turnaround efforts?
- Is the work of the external consultants aligned with the vision, mission, and goals of the school?
- Do the external consultants provide job-embedded coaching to support the improvement efforts?
Desired Future State
School leaders use multiple sources of data, engage various interested parties, and lead a collaborative analysis of findings that results in the development of an action plan.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 1.3.53 below.
Desired Future State
To identify a school’s needs, school leaders use multiple sources of data a great deal as part of the needs assessment.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 1.3.53 below.
Desired Future State
To identify a school’s needs, school leaders engage multiple interested parties a great deal as part of the needs assessment.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 1.3.53 below.
Desired Future State
To identify a school’s needs, school leaders use a collaborative analysis of findings a great deal as part of the needs assessment.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Use a needs assessment as a point-in-time snapshot that may be comprehensive or segmented.
- Consider using a comprehensive needs assessment to examine all aspects of the school and its context. A comprehensive needs assessment provides information about organizational direction, including goals and strategies; systematic functions; and long-range plans.
- Consider using a segmented needs assessment to examine only one or a few aspects of the school and its context. A segmented needs assessment provides information about improvements to targeted functions or aspects of the school; incremental change; and short-term plans (typically less than a year).
- Revisit and update the needs assessment regularly to ensure its alignment with the school improvement plan and to check for progress against the original findings.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Which data are used as part of the school’s needs assessment? Are there multiple sources of data?
- Did the needs assessment engage various interested parties? Which interested parties participated?
- Has there been a collaborative analysis of the findings?
- How are the findings from the needs assessment informing the creation of the school improvement plan?
- How are the results from the needs assessment informing immediate next steps for the school?
- What early actions are taken as a result of the needs assessment?
Prioritize Improvement and Communicate Its Urgency
- Set the strategic direction for the turnaround and establish clear policies, structures, and expectations for constituents to work toward ambitious improvement goals.
- Articulate a commitment to turning around the lowest performing schools and advocate fiercely across audiences for these schools.
- Closely monitor, discuss, report, and act upon the progress of schools undertaking rapid improvement.
LEA Example
The LEA identifies a senior district official to lead a team that oversees local improvement initiatives, including principal support and development, policy development, districtwide data analysis, and overall strategy direction. The superintendent and senior district official articulate the need for turnaround, connecting the state’s advocacy for it to local contexts and inviting local community members to further inform implementation efforts, policy, and resource distribution.
Desired Future State
A clear vision exists and is shared by school leaders and staff, and district programs and initiatives fully support the vision.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Designate a senior district leader to oversee turnaround efforts.
- Advocate relentlessly for the success of low-performing schools by sharing the urgency and importance of turnaround efforts with all stakeholders, including families, staff, and community members.
- Implement robust systems for collecting, analyzing, and sharing school performance data to track progress.
- Use data to guide resource allocation, adjust strategies, and celebrate incremental successes.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What systems or processes are in place to ensure the senior leader remains accountable for supporting turnaround efforts across all schools?
- What methods are being used to ensure that advocacy efforts are consistent and resonate with all stakeholder groups?
- What systems are in place for collecting, analyzing, and sharing school performance data, and how well do they align with school improvement goals?
- How often are performance data shared with stakeholders, and how are the data used to foster transparency and drive decision-making?
- How does the leadership team use performance data to prioritize resource allocation and adjust strategies effectively?
Desired Future State
During the school year, LEA leaders meet with groups of school leaders at least monthly to build a shared vision for student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
-
- Form a dedicated team to support and monitor school leaders, focusing on principal development, strategic planning, and policy alignment.
- Facilitate the collective development of a shared vision for student learning by devoting time to these and related topics:
- shared core values among school leaders
- determination of contextual opportunities and barriers that students and the community experience
- shared ideas for priorities that emphasize action on identified core values
- a collective definition of student and school success
- Develop a process by which leaders can vet the developing vision statement with essential stakeholders.
- Engage school leaders in providing specific context based on their schools to inform the LEA vision statement.
- Engage school leaders in the development of a theory of action and logic model aligned with the developing vision statement and inclusive of the shared definition of success.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Does the team have a shared vision for student learning?
- Are school leaders developing the vision with essential stakeholders?
- How will the context of your LEA and schools inform the development of a shared vision for student learning?
- Are there essential voices beyond school leaders who should be a part of this process?
Desired Future State
Data are formatted to help school leaders analyze them, and the district provides training on data analysis.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Implement systems for collecting, analyzing, and sharing school performance data to track progress.
- Use data to inform resource distribution, refine improvement strategies, and recognize instrumental achievements.
- Identify an LEA team that will coordinate the identification and sharing of key data with school leaders.
- Establish an LEA-wide schedule for LEA and school leaders to study student learning data to develop a shared understanding.
- Establish an LEA-wide student learning data professional learning community (PLC) to study student performance trends and identify and address challenges.
- Engage in routine dialogue with school leaders to determine their needs related to data study and analysis.
- Develop targeted professional learning and support for school leaders to increase their capacity for analyzing student learning data.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What data will be collected to measure and monitor the progress of schools toward the LEA vision and priorities for student learning?
- How will school leaders’ needs be determined in order to inform professional learning for increasing data literacy and capacity?
- What systems are in place or can be developed to share data with stakeholder groups and community leaders?
- How will data be used to develop school-level performance and improvement goals?
- How will the LEA work with and support school leaders in using data to shape school plans for increasing student learning?
Desired Future State
The superintendent or other district administrator uses multiple strategies to communicate the districtwide vision to internal and external stakeholders and regularly communicates progress toward identified milestones aligned with the district vision.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Collaborate with key stakeholders, including educators, families, and community members, to create a compelling vision that reflects shared values and aspirations.
- Ensure the vision emphasizes excellence and continuous improvement and is relatable and relevant to all constituents.
- Use diverse communication channels, such as community meetings, newsletters, social media, and school events, to share the vision regularly.
- Tailor messaging to resonate with different audiences, ensuring accessibility and understanding across the district.
- Highlight examples of schools or individuals making progress toward the vision, fostering a culture of recognition and motivation.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What are the core values that power the district vision statement?
- How is the district vision statement shared with internal and external stakeholders?
- How will leaders ensure that members of each stakeholder group will help share the vision statement across the community?
- What commitment can be made to communicate the vision statement and its relevance to the local community?
- How will district and school leaders support the vision statement?
(See 1.1.20)
(See 1.1.10)
Monitor Short- and Long-Term Goals
Practice Description
- Develop goals informed by assessments of recent performance trends and identify practices aimed at realizing a clearly articulated turnaround vision of significantly improved student learning.
- Establish milestones for gauging progress. Continually update timelines and tasks to maintain the pace needed to accomplish meaningful goals quickly.
- Respond to regular feedback on progress toward goal-directed milestones, and make timely changes in policy, programs, and personnel to get on track in achieving desired results for students.
- Capitalize on initial turnaround successes and momentum to shift the focus from the change itself to the incorporation and establishment of effective organizational processes, structures, and interactions that contribute to continuous organizational improvement.
LEA Example
LEA leaders provide intensive, tiered support to principals and school leadership teams to help them develop action items, timelines, and responsibilities aligned with each school’s turnaround plan. The LEA provides access to data to inform goal-directed milestones, including markers for implementation, changes in professional practice, and interim and annual student assessments. The LEA also provides schools with resources, time, and concrete feedback to support them in refining and advancing their turnaround plan.
Desired Future State
District policies and practices always support school-level efforts to improve student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Use performance data to develop short- and long-term goals aligned with the district’s vision for improvement.
- Develop time-bound milestones for long-term goals with routine progress monitoring and adjustments.
- Establish a consistent schedule for reviewing data, assessing milestones, and tracking progress against goals.
- Use methods such as dashboards, reports, or scorecards to make data accessible and actionable for district leaders and school teams.
- Leverage district support and feedback to make timely adjustments to strategies, timelines, or resources aligned with desired outcomes.
- Celebrate and highlight early successes and communicate them broadly to reinforce confidence in the turnaround process.
- Routinely engage school leaders and teachers in collaboratively analyzing data and refining strategies to meet goals.
- Ensure community partners and families are kept informed and are invited to contribute to efforts that sustain progress.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How will the LEA identify and share the district-level roles in support of school improvement? What are the key identified roles and their functions?
- What process is in place to identify the unique needs of school leaders, and how will the LEA respond to those needs?
- How will the LEA differentiate professional learning for school leaders?
- What systems are in place for school leaders to identify school-specific needs to support school improvement?
- What tools, systems, and structures can the LEA offer school leaders in order to give them adequate decision-making authority to support school improvement?
Desired Future State
The district provides all needed resources and works with schools to make sure improvement plans are useful.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Supply schools with detailed performance trend reports that highlight strengths, weaknesses, and gaps.
- Offer templates and guidance for schools to set goals that are aligned with the district’s turnaround vision.
- Encourage schools to involve stakeholders in the goal-setting process to ensure buy-in and shared accountability.
- Organize workshops or planning sessions in which district staff support schools in analyzing data and aligning the schools’ goals with evidence-based practices.
- Provide a standardized framework for schools to document timelines, tasks, and responsible parties, ensuring clarity and accountability.
- Schedule regular check-ins for school leaders to present progress updates and discuss challenges.
- Create a process for revising improvement plans based on feedback from these check-ins, enabling schools to respond to evolving needs and to maintain momentum.
- Ensure that schools have access to professional development, instructional resources, and other supports aligned with their improvement plans.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What training needs do school leaders require for developing goals and aligned strategic plans?
- How does the LEA assess and respond to school leader capacity for using data to guide school improvement planning?
- What is the LEA capacity to support school leaders with coaching and professional learning?
- What structure(s) or processes are in place to assess whether improvement efforts are successful?
Desired Future State
District leaders continuously work with school-level leaders to review student learning data, giving specific attention to students in need of extra support.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create a districtwide schedule to have data meetings with school leaders that are focused on analyzing student performance trends and identifying students in need of additional support.
- Provide structured protocols for these meetings, emphasizing disaggregation of data by student groups.
- Train school leaders on effective methods for interpreting student data.
- Offer tools and resources that make data analysis accessible and actionable.
- Work with school leaders to design and implement targeted interventions for students needing additional help, incorporating evidence-based practices and measurable outcomes.
- Encourage cross-school collaboration to share successful strategies and resources for supporting high-need students.
- Establish systems for tracking the impact of interventions on student learning, ensuring that progress is reviewed frequently and adjustments are made as needed.
- Celebrate successful practices and replicate them while also addressing areas where interventions are not producing the desired outcomes.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What is the LEA protocol for data-review meetings with school leaders?
- What are district-level leaders’ roles and functions in supporting school leaders?
- How do data-review meetings with school leaders lead to modifications or revisions in school improvement or student learning plans?
- What opportunities can the LEA create for school leaders to share what is learned from data-review meetings?
Desired Future State
District-level leaders meet with school-level leaders to review results from state tests and to discuss schools’ needs for school improvement planning processes.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Use a standardized protocol for reviewing results, encouraging leaders to focus on root causes, strengths, and areas needing improvement.
- Collaborate with school leaders to prioritize needs based on test results, ensuring alignment with districtwide improvement goals.
- Offer tailored resources, such as instructional coaches, curriculum enhancements, or professional development opportunities, based on identified areas of need.
- Guide school leaders in incorporating state test findings into their school improvement plans, ensuring goals are driven by data and focused on closing achievement gaps.
- Assist in establishing specific, measurable milestones within the improvement plans that align with state and district performance benchmarks.
- Create opportunities for school leaders to share best practices and challenges with peers, fostering a districtwide community of learning and support.
- Include district specialists or external experts in meetings to provide additional insights and innovative solutions for addressing performance challenges.
- Schedule follow-up meetings to monitor progress on improvement plans, using interim assessments and additional data points to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How does the LEA support school-level assessments aligned with state tests?
- What support does the LEA provide to school leaders in establishing benchmarks and milestones for monitoring student learning?
- What LEA-level strategies are priorities for supporting school improvement and student learning? How are these communicated to school leader and educator teams?
- What success indicators has the LEA identified to track its own efforts to support school improvement?
- How often does the LEA communicate with the state education agency’s department that supports school improvement?
- In what ways are school leaders empowered to provide feedback to the LEA on the LEA’s support for school improvement plans?
Customize and Target Support to Meet Needs
Practice Description
- Provide customized, targeted, and timely support for turnaround efforts.
- Align support to ensure coherence and integration with other necessary initiatives; eliminate unnecessary initiatives.
- Regularly monitor progress to identify support needs and then act quickly and competently to address those needs.
LEA Example
LEA leaders provide tailored support to each school based on deep root-cause analysis and needs assessment to inform the school’s priorities. The LEA customizes each school’s level of autonomy for personnel hiring, placement, and replacement and other key decisions based on school capacity.
Desired Future State
The district assesses the learning needs of each individual school in the district and implements initiatives in each school based on those needs.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Identify barriers to student achievement and engagement, involving stakeholder groups in the analysis process.
- Collect and analyze a variety of data points. Supplement with surveys and focus groups for qualitative insights.
- Schedule regular walk-throughs with district leaders, school staff, and external experts to observe classroom practices, review school climate, and gather feedback directly from the field.
- Offer differentiated training and coaching tailored to the unique needs of each school.
- Collaborate with school leadership teams to create individualized action plans based on each school’s needs assessment and root-cause analysis.
- Define clear goals, actionable steps, and metrics for progress monitoring.
- Review all the initiatives that schools are pursuing and consider whether any may be eliminated if they do not match identified needs.
- Establish forums for cross-school collaboration, where schools facing similar challenges can share best practices and resources. Encourage partnerships with local organizations to address broader community needs.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What guidance and training has LEA leadership developed to support schools in engaging in a comprehensive needs assessment and root-cause analysis as part of school improvement planning?
- Is there a schedule in place for LEA leadership to meet with school leaders to review school improvement plans, needs, and progress?
- What is the LEA capacity to support a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and student wraparound services that may be priorities of school improvement plans?
- What goals and indicators have been identified to guide and assess the LEA’s support of school improvement?
- Does the LEA create flexibility for school leaders to prioritize school improvement initiatives?
Desired Future State
All outside providers understand the district’s vision and work to support it.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Build relationships with outside providers by emphasizing the district’s commitment to support schools and shared outcomes.
- Assign district liaisons to act as points of contact for each provider, fostering consistent communication.
- Create contracts or document agreements that describe deliverables, timelines, and accountability measures.
- Establish protocols for how providers will interact with schools, collect data, and report progress.
- Schedule regular meetings with providers to review progress, share feedback, and adjust strategies as needed.
- Use data and evidence to evaluate the impact of their work on student learning.
- Encourage providers to collaborate with principals, teachers, and other stakeholders to tailor their services to each school’s unique learning needs.
- Promote cross-provider communication to share best practices and avoid redundancies.
- Share data and stories that illustrate the positive impact of provider partnerships on student outcomes.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Are there protocols in place for the LEA to identify and screen potential vendors and consultants to support school leaders? What are those protocols?
- What communication strategies has the LEA developed with vendors to assess their effectiveness and success in supporting schools?
- How does the LEA leadership provide vendors and consultants with a full context about the community and students and the schools’ needs? What data are shared?
- What agreements does the LEA establish with consultants to ensure the relevance of services provided to schools in support of school improvement?
- How does LEA leadership work with school leaders to monitor vendor work and support?
Desired Future State
District specialists fully understand current problems in schools, their work is relevant to schools’ needs, and they support the schools as their suggested changes are being implemented.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Organize quarterly alignment sessions for district specialists to review the district’s vision, goals, and school-specific priorities.
- Develop for district specialists clear roles and responsibilities that are tied to these goals.
- Assign each district specialist to a cluster of schools, fostering strong relationships with school leaders and teachers.
- Involve district specialists in school-level needs assessments to identify professional development requirements, instructional gaps, and resource needs, and use these data to develop action plans with school leaders.
- Provide access to training on instructional strategies, data analysis, and change management to keep specialists’ skills up to date.
- Facilitate learning exchanges with district specialists in other districts or regions to bring in fresh perspectives.
- Develop structured processes for collecting feedback from principals and teachers about district specialists’ recommendations and use the feedback to support and adapt the district’s approaches.
- Highlight the impact of district specialists’ work during district meetings, in newsletters, or through awards programs.
- Share success stories that showcase school improvements that the district specialists’ efforts contributed to.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How does the LEA leadership provide district specialists with a full context of the community and students and the shared needs of schools? What data are shared?
- What training or support do district specialists receive for working with schools in improvement?
- How are outcomes for district specialists’ support established?
- How does LEA leadership work with school leaders to monitor district specialists’ work and support?
Desired Future State
School leaders have substantial power to allocate resources to support innovative practices in teaching and learning, and the district provides training to support creative resource reallocations.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Organize workshops and seminars focused on budgeting strategies, grant writing, and effective resource management.
- Include case studies of successful resource reallocation to support innovative teaching and learning practices.
- Facilitate collaborative planning sessions involving teachers, instructional coaches, and community stakeholders to identify priority areas for innovation.
- Create a decision-making framework to help school leaders assess the impact, feasibility, and sustainability of reallocating resources for innovative practices.
- Include criteria such as alignment with school improvement goals, potential for student impact, and scalability.
- Establish district-level grants or funding pools that school leaders can apply for to support innovative teaching and learning projects.
- Give awards to or publicly acknowledge schools that successfully implement impactful innovations.
- Publish a districtwide resource allocation playbook featuring examples of effective practices.
- Allow for discretionary funds in school budgets that leaders can allocate toward innovative pilot projects or emergent needs.
- Assign district specialists or coaches to support school leaders in identifying funding sources and reallocating resources.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What training does the LEA provide to school leaders in strategic budgeting for school improvement?
- How does the district school improvement coordinator or team interface with school leaders in budgeting for school improvement?
- How do school leaders communicate their specific needs for latitude in decision-making to support school improvement?
- What role does LEA leadership have in working with school leaders to review progress on school goals and strategies?
- How does the LEA support school leaders in reviewing and revising budgets that enable school improvement?
Desired Future State
When school leaders inform district leaders that they need support or resources, the district leaders are responsive in a timely manner.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create an online portal for school leaders to submit resource requests to the LEA. Include fields for urgency, justification, and anticipated outcomes.
- Develop a ticketing system to track and prioritize requests based on impact and urgency.
- Assign district specialists or liaisons to each school to serve as dedicated points of contact for addressing resource and support needs.
- Allocate a portion of the district budget or resources as a contingency fund for addressing urgent or unanticipated school needs, and establish quick-access procedures for school leaders to tap into this pool when necessary.
- Introduce streamlined workflows, such as preapproved categories of common resources or fast-tracking of urgent requests.
- Hold regular district–school leadership meetings to discuss ongoing needs and challenges, ensuring open lines of communication.
- Recognize and reward district staff who excel in providing timely and effective support to schools.
- Analyze patterns in past requests to identify common challenges and proactively allocate resources or provide training.
- Develop a rapid-response team for addressing critical needs.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Who at the LEA level participates in the review of schools’ strategic plans?
- What is the protocol for reviewing schools’ improvement budgets and requests for support?
- What LEA goals or priorities inform the review of schools’ budgets and improvement plans?
- What process has been developed for LEA and school leaders to communicate regularly about successes, challenges, and needs regarding school improvement?
- How can LEA leaders support collaboration among school leaders for developing budgets for school improvement?
- What connections to networks or state organizations can LEA leaders initiate or enhance to help schools develop creative strategies and budgeting approaches?
A Note on Numbering:
The numbering system corresponds to the Four Domains framework and the numbering of items in the CALL surveys. in the example 1.2.30, the first number represents the domain (ex. Domain 1), the second number represents the practice (ex. Practice 2), and the third number represents the item number from the CALL survey that is most relevant to this practice item (ex. item 30).
View Diagram
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The bottom label reads ‘District Vision for Student Learning (1.1.10).’ Arrows point upward to four boxes: a large top box ‘Descriptor of a practice item’; a right-side stack with ‘Domain’ above ‘Practice’; and a lower right box ‘CALL survey item that addresses this practice item.’ The arrows indicate that each element—descriptor, domain, practice, and CALL survey item—connects to the example practice item.
The bottom label reads ‘District Vision for Student Learning (1.1.10).’ Arrows point upward to four boxes: a large top box ‘Descriptor of a practice item’; a right-side stack with ‘Domain’ above ‘Practice’; and a lower right box ‘CALL survey item that addresses this practice item.’ The arrows indicate that each element—descriptor, domain, practice, and CALL survey item—connects to the example practice item.