Turnaround model

The Turnaround Model is one of four strategies available to American local education agencies (LEAs) under the Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants programs of the Obama administration. The other three programs include Restart, Transformation, and School Closures.

The Obama administration increased its control over the education systems across the United States by implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the 2009 economic stimulus package. This act was instituted as a result of the looming deadline of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The ARRA incorporates three tiers of federal funding to help eligible schools improve: Race to the Top (RTTT), School Improvement Grants (SIG), and Investing in Innovation Fund. The Obama Administration announced that $4.35 billion in RTTT, $3.5 billion in SIG, and $450 million would be given the U.S. Department of Education in order to begin a campaign targeted at increasing student achievement in the lowest performing 5% of schools across the United States.

The grants from RTTT and SIG, which is indirectly supported by RTTT, were made available to various State Education Agencies (SEAs). After receiving the large sums of money, SEAs re-allocated these funds to the Local Education Agencies (LEAs). In order to actually receive and utilize funds from RTTT or SIGs, an LEA had to demonstrate that it contained consistently low performing schools and it had to adhere to one of four generic models or strategies designed to "turn around" a school’s performance. The Turnaround Model is one of the four strategies that an LEA can choose to implement in its local schools in an effort to raise student achievement per a 2009 Department of Education initiative. Though the Turnaround Model shares the name with the overarching program, the model is a particular strategy within the greater initiative.

The turnaround initiative stems back to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which was enacted by Congress under the Johnson Administration. The bill was designed in part to emphasize equal access to education and excellent educational opportunities for all children. Even though the bill was not originally authorized until 1970, it has been reauthorized every 5 years by Congress. In 2001, ESEA experienced its most significant reauthorization under the George W. Bush Administration in which it was not only reauthorized, but renamed No Child Left Behind (NCLB). NCLB operates with the same charge as ESEA, but focuses specifically on providing all children with accessibility to a high-quality education as measured by standardized assessments. NCLB also required states to create academic state standards and a testing system to measure students’ progress against these standards. Additionally, NCLB pushed accountability for all students and flexibility at the district level, meaning that even students who are at a socioeconomic disadvantage must meet state standards and that districts are able to use federal funding as needed in their area. But unlike ESEA, NCLB introduced a requirement that by the year 2014, 100% of all students would be Proficient in Reading and Math. As the deadline for 100% Proficiency in Reading and Math continues to approach, it became increasingly obvious that unless there was a drastic change, the U.S. would not reach its 100% target and schools would receive various sanctions that correspond with length of underperformance. This reality prompted the Obama Administration to create the School Improvement Grant program (Section 1003(g) of Title I) and the four models of turnaround as a means to incentivize school revitalization through federal funds.

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