You are here

The TurnAround ToolKit
Share
Share

The TurnAround ToolKit
Managing Rapid, Sustainable School Improvement

Foreword by Carl A. Cohn

Additional resources:


June 2012 | 312 pages | Corwin
Lynn Winters's and Joan Herman's The Turnaround Toolkit is written for school leaders who are focused on transforming instruction, and who may be working under significant time constraints to reverse declining student achievement or public perceptions of school failure.

Based on the evidence that simply implementing "continuous improvement" is not enough to close the achievement gap, The Turnaround Toolkit provides a nine-step formative evaluation programme designed to achieve an immediate and consistent focus on improving instruction in order to bolster student achievement. In a straightforward and accessible fashion, Herman and Winters explain three overarching "Turnaround Tasks" that frame these steps and the necessary—and sometimes drastic—actions that must be taken by school leaders as they use data to strategically choose, implement, monitor, and revise school interventions.

A dedicated, online "toolkit" offers numerous worksheets and templates that support each stage of the process and help school leaders scaffold the work of educators to put an aggressive turnaround plan into action while a leadership guide at the end of the book provides guidance to turnaround teams and facilitators.

 
Foreword by Carl A. Cohn
 
Publisher's Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Introduction
 
Part I. The 3 Rs of Turnaround Work: Realign, Redesign, Refine
 
Section I. Realign: Create the Structures for Turnaround Work
 
1. Develop Systems for Managing Turnaround Activities: Distributed Leadership, Collaborative Teams, Expert Reviewers and Networks, Data Capacity
 
2. Organize Information Needed to Redesign Programs
 
3. Prepare Data Summaries and Displays
 
Section II. Redesign: Use Data to Create the Turnaround Plan
 
4. Identify the Turnaround Focus
 
5. Redesign Programs to Address the Turnaround Focus
 
6. Develop and Implement the Turnaround Plan
 
Section III. Refine: Evaluate and Revise the Turnaround Plan
 
7. Design an Evaluation of the Turnaround Plan
 
8. Analyze Evaluation Data and Revise the Program
 
9. The 4th R of Turnaround Work: Reflect on Lessons Learned
 
Part II. Leader's Guides for The TurnAround ToolKit
 
Introduction to Leader's Guides
 
1. Develop Systems for Managing Turnaround Activities: Distributed Leadership, Collaborative Teams, Expert Reviewers and Networks, Data Capacity: Leader's Guide
 
2. Organize Information Needed to Redesign Programs: Leader's Guide
 
3. Prepare Data Summaries and Displays: Leader's Guide
 
4. Identify the Turnaround Focus: Leader's Guide
 
5. Redesign Programs to Address the Turnaround Focus: Leader's Guide
 
6. Develop and Implement the Turnaround Plan: Leader's Guide
 
7. Design an Evaluation of the Turnaround Plan: Leader's Guide
 
8. Analyze Evaluation Data and Revise the Program: Leader's Guide
 
Endnotes
 
Resources and References
 
Index

Supplements

Supplemental Resources Website
The purpose of the web-based tools on this site is to provide you with templates and downloadable materials to support your work. We encourage you to modify these to fit your local needs. This website will be updated periodically with additional tools developed by users for the benefit of the "turnaround community." If you have created protocols, templates, or instructional material you have found useful in working with schools and are willing to share these, please submit them to us and share them with your colleagues.

“An absolute MUST-READ for school leaders who need to generate school improvement immediately! This book will help you make your school's ‘turnaround’ happen effectively.”

Bruce Haddix, Principal
Center Grove Elementary School, Greenwood, IN

“Turning around struggling schools is a challenging issue policymakers everywhere face. Lynn Winters and Joan Herman explain not only what to do but how to do it, including useful tools to help educators get started. The TurnAround Toolkit should be read widely.”

Robert Rothman, Senior Fellow, Alliance for Excellent Education
Alliance for Excellent Education

"School leaders searching for a way to achieve dramatic, focused, positive school improvement will find this book valuable. The text's manageable tools will provide a focused guide for improving student achievement."

Pamela H. Scott, Assistant Professor/Graduate Program Coordinator School Leadership
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

“The author goes to the heart of school improvement by addressing the critical need to elevate learning for all students through the use of formative data and evaluation.”

Jim Lentz, Superintendent
USD 402 Augusta Public Schools, KS

"Lynn Winters and Joan Herman understand there are no quick fixes to turning around low-performing schools. In this book, they draw on their hard-won experience to provide school leaders with the practical guidance necessary to succeed."

Hayes Mizell, Director (1987-2003), Program for Student Achievement
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation

"Takes the current school improvement cycle and provides a focus on instruction and tools to get the job done."

Leslie Standerfer, Principal
Estrella Foothills High School, Goodyear, AZ

Sample Materials & Chapters

Winters_Introduction

Winters_Chapter1


Lynn S. Winters

Lynn Winters was the Assistant Superintendent for Research Long Beach Unified School District, nationally recognized by the President and the Broad Prize for implementing systems for data guided decision making. She currently consults for Urban School Imagineers training urban school data teams and evaluating an urban school leadership training program.. Prior positions include Lecturer in Social Research Methods at the UCLA Graduate School of Education, high school teaching (history, Spanish and Special Education); county office assessment consultant; Director of Research for Palos Verdes Schools; and Project Director for three grants at... More About Author

Joan L. Herman

Joan L. Herman is Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA. Her research has explored the effects of accountability and assessment on schools and teachers and the design of assessment systems to support school planning and instructional improvement. Her recent work has focused on the quality and consequences of teachers' formative assessment practices. She also has wide experience as an evaluator of school reform. Dr. Herman is noted in bridging research, and practice, particularly in applications serving English Language Learners and at-risk students. Among her books are... More About Author

Purchasing options

Please select a format:

ISBN: 9781412975018
$45.95