A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: A Guide for State and Local Leaders (May 1998)

Acknowledgments

Many people helped create this guide by providing information, research, or feedback. The Department would like to thank all the teachers, principals, and school district administrators in Baltimore, Chicago, and San Francisco who helped organize and participated in focus groups to discuss how they are turning around their schools. Appreciation also goes to the principals and teachers who opened their schools to us in Chicago.

We also are grateful for the help provided by: "Catalyst: Voices of Chicago School Reform" Chicago's Successful Schools; Susan Fuhrman, Consortium for Policy Research in Education; Cathy Gassenheimer, A+ Research Foundation; Philip Hansen, Chief Accountability Officer, Chicago Public Schools; Pat Harvey, Director of Urban Education and Senior Fellow, National Center on Education and the Economy; Anne Jolly, Executive Director, Alabama State Teacher Forum; the Kellogg Foundation; Phyllis McClure, private consultant; Jacques Nacson, National Education Association; the National Alliance for Business; Claire Porter, National Association of Secondary School Principals; Marie Robinson, National Association of Elementary School Principals; the Rockefeller Foundation; Dr. Jack Shelton, PACERS Small School Cooperative; and Steve Fleishman and Ruth Wattenberg, American Federation of Teachers. The Department also acknowledges the work of Jennifer O'Day at the University of Wisconsin on the section of the guide on lessons learned about reconstitution. The regional educational laboratories and comprehensive regional assistance centers provided valuable examples of turnaround schools; Barbara Vespucci and Kristin Bunce helped assemble these examples.

Particular thanks go to the numerous people inside and outside the Department who reviewed and commented on this guide, including Richard Mills, Commissioner of Education for New York State, and Thomas Payzant, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools. Many others provided examples, advice, and insight as we drafted this guide, and we apologize for not being able to acknowledge individually all their hard work.

This guide was prepared by Planning and Evaluation Service staff members Kathryn Doherty and Sarah Abernathy, with the assistance of Jennifer Ballen, under the direction of Val Plisko and Adriana de Kanter. Terry Peterson, Counselor to the Secretary, provided invaluable guidance throughout its preparation.

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