Turnaround efforts at individual schools will not result in widespread, sustainable change without fundamental shifts in the way districts evaluate school, student, and teacher needs and match resources and support to meet those needs. Your challenge is to develop district capacity to address these four questions: What does each school need? What does each school get now? Does your district have an effective turnaround program? What are the right intervention strategies for each school?

This guide offers practical guidance for school districts to remedy specific resource misalignments that prevent the effective implementation of strategic school designs.

• Use the Self-Assessment to determine whether your district is achieving the goals of strategic school design and portfolio management.
• Learn more about the effective allocation of talent, time, and money and the causes of misalignment between resource allocation and strategic goals.
• Apply the methodology detailed in the worksheets in this guide to figure out the extent of the misalignments in your district.
• Identify action steps you can take.
• Determine your priorities for reallocating resources and leveraging federal dollars.

Download Turnaround Schools (PDF)

Also, consider checking out the other Practical Tools for District Transformation:

• Seven Strategies for District Transformation
• Resource Check
• School Design: Leveraging Talent, Time, and Money
• Turnaround Schools: District Strategies for Success and Sustainability
• The Teaching Job: Structuring for Quality