Short-Cycle School Improvement Planning as a Lever to Launch School Turnaround: A Descriptive Analysis of Plans

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Bryan A. Vangronigen ◽  
Coby V. Meyers
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
School Turnaround ◽  
Plan Quality ◽  
Short Cycle ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
School Improvement Planning ◽  
Improvement Planning ◽  
State Education ◽  
Over Time

Background School improvement planning is a common school leadership practice built on assumptions that schools increase organizational performance if rational yearly plans are developed and then enacted with fidelity. A quality school improvement plan (SIP) should position subsequent critical leadership and instructional moves in a more holistic change initiative. Although multiple studies suggest that positive relationships exist between SIP quality and student achievement outcomes, all studies of SIPs have focused on the traditional, yearlong approach to school improvement planning. An alternative approach operates on shorter cycles of approximately one semester, a model that could be beneficial for low-performing schools engaged in turnaround efforts in which altering goals and strategies might need to occur more frequently to be situationally responsive. Purpose In this study, we analyze short-cycle SIPs from three cohorts of low-performing schools participating in a university-based program focused on improving systems leadership to rapidly increase school performance and student achievement. We determine overall SIP quality and whether it changes over time. Furthermore, we analyze plan quality by planning domain (e.g., vision, action steps) over time. To our knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes short-cycle SIPs specifically. Research Design We employ a conventional content analysis approach to examine 389 short-cycle SIPs submitted by 136 schools across three cohorts of school principals attempting to lead school turnaround. To analyze the short-cycle SIPs, we developed a rubric that includes 12 planning domains and is based on previous analyses of SIPs since 2001. Our descriptive analyses of short-cycle SIPs show easily identifiable patterns. Conclusions Overall plan quality is weak. Although most planning domains and overall plan quality scores improve over time, their increases are mostly nominal. Results suggest that principals attempting to lead turnaround efforts do not often set compelling turnaround visions or engage in deep root cause analysis to identify meaningful focus areas. Although we believe there is great potential in short-cycle SIPs, results further suggest that principals must be strategic in what they prioritize, especially in low-performing schools facing myriad challenges. Last, service providers, school districts, and state education agencies would be wise to recognize that principals will typically develop SIPs that are directly responsive to templates and/or policies.

Exploring the Association Between Short-cycle School Improvement Planning and Student Achievement in Underperforming Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 105268462110182
Author(s):  
Bryan A. VanGronigen ◽  
Coby V. Meyers
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Underperforming Schools ◽  
Short Cycle ◽  
School Improvement Planning ◽  
Improvement Planning ◽  
Academic Year

Some governments require that educational leaders working in underperforming schools create school improvement plans (SIPs) to guide change efforts. Extant research describes two common approaches to SIPs: (a) a “traditional” approach where leaders create a single plan for an entire academic year, and (b) a “short-cycle” approach where leaders create two plans during an academic year (e.g., one for each semester). Despite widespread appeal, surprisingly little research has been conducted on SIPs and their influence on outcomes of interest. Nearly all studies investigate the traditional approach, and no published studies examine the potential influence of short-cycle SIPs on outcomes of interest (e.g., student achievement). In response to these gaps, the purpose of this study was to explore potential associations between short-cycle SIP quality and student achievement in English/language arts (ELA) and mathematics. We used a publicly available rubric to score 389 short-cycle SIPs on 12 planning domains and then employed a correlational design to examine potential relationships between short-cycle SIP quality and student achievement. Results concluded that short-cycle SIP quality increased over time, but despite small, positive relationships between increased short-cycle SIP quality and increased student achievement, there were no statistically significant impacts. Given the number of factors found to influence student learning, these results are unsurprising, but nevertheless encouraging. We close by discussing how educational leaders might need training to best leverage the short-cycle approach and how future research efforts can continue contributing to a sparse, but growing knowledge base on school improvement planning approaches.

How State Education Agencies Are Administering School Turnaround Efforts: 15 Years After No Child Left Behind

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan A. VanGronigen ◽  
Coby V. Meyers
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
School Turnaround ◽  
Rapid Improvement ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
State Education Agency ◽  
State Education ◽  
Education Agency ◽  
K 12

School turnaround—the rapid improvement of student achievement in low-performing schools—is increasingly a major topic of interest in K-12 public education. Federal legislation has left varying degrees of school improvement–related responsibilities up to states, and policy makers have divergent views about how to realize turnaround. We investigate and describe how each state education agency (SEA) is administering school turnaround efforts in federally designated priority schools. To accomplish this, we examined a variety of publicly available documents from SEA websites and summarized the data into three overarching categories. We discuss how this finding has significant implications for policy makers and SEAs, especially as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is implemented.

The Effects of School Turnaround in Tennessee’s Achievement School District and Innovation Zones

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 670-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Zimmer ◽  
Gary T. Henry ◽  
Adam Kho
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School District ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Race To The Top ◽  
School Turnaround ◽  
Transformation Models ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Charter Management Organization ◽  
Turnaround Strategies ◽  
Management Organization

In recent years, the federal government has invested billions of dollars to reform chronically low-performing schools. To fulfill their federal Race to the Top grant agreement, Tennessee implemented three turnaround strategies that adhered to the federal restart and transformation models: (a) placed schools under the auspices of the Achievement School District (ASD), which directly managed them; (b) placed schools under the ASD, which arranged for management by a charter management organization; and (c) placed schools under the management of a district Innovation Zone (iZone) with additional resources and autonomy. We examine the effects of each strategy and find that iZone schools, which were separately managed by three districts, substantially improved student achievement. In schools under the auspices of the ASD, student achievement did not improve or worsen. This suggests that it is possible to improve schools without removing them from the governance of a school district.

scholarly journals Organizational Learning in Schools under Sanction

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara S. Finnigan ◽  
Alan J. Daly ◽  
Tricia J. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Turnaround ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Reform Strategies ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Low Performance ◽  
Culture And Climate

The focus on “school turnaround” has become central to policy and practice in the United States as a result of school accountability, yet little remains known about school improvement under sanction. This study uses theories of organizational learning to understand the processes through which educators search for and adopt reform strategies, as well as the extent to which these schools’ organizational culture and climate are conducive to this type of learning. Our mixed methods study involves document analysis, intensive case studies, and a survey of teachers in schools under sanction in a large urban school district in the USA. We found limited evidence of organizational learning, and instead evidence suggested superficial use of restructuring planning, rare diagnoses of root causes of low performance, and limited engagement in learning processes of school staff. In addition, schools relied on exploitation resulting in the recycling of previous practices. In part, the limited organizational learning in evidence was the result of structures and climates within these low-performing schools that inhibited a more learning-oriented approach to reform. Our study has implications for school improvement under accountability policies as it uncovers important challenges that limit organizational learning and, as a result, school improvement under sanction.

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