Turnaround was founded in the 1990s and, since then, has focused on the bottom 20 percent of chronically underperforming and failing public schools.

This is the band of schools for which no other model has achieved significant traction and which become dropout factories, delivering kids into high school unprepared for high school-level work or graduation, let alone post-secondary education. Turnaround has developed an intervention model sufficiently powerful to reverse that failure and transform these schools into thriving educational environments where there are universally high expectations for student achievement and development. Over time, there have been several iterations of the model. Today, the model is demonstrating its power in numerous schools in New York City and Turnaround is just now poised for national expansion.

In the 2008–09 school year, Turnaround schools outpaced city gains in double digits on statewide standardized tests in English and Math. Most importantly, some Turnaround schools have achieved those gains after only the first year of the Intervention. The reason for Turnaround’s success with these schools—and the most unique aspect of the model—is Turnaround’s understanding of both the direct effects of poverty on learning and the need to take these effects into account when considering the design of schools that serve a high-need student population. In Turnaround schools, approximately 85 percent of students qualify for free lunch and over half are behind grade level. These schools are plagued by all the issues that reside in the communities that surround them, issues that manifest in a level of disruption that even the best new leaders and teachers were never trained to manage, let alone solve. The success of the Turnaround model proves that “regular” public schools can themselves be a powerful force for change. While teacher and principal quality and training are important, real student success in these schools can only occur when schools establish a culture that houses the knowledge, skills and resources to address the depth of unmet social and personal needs unique to children in the worst schools.

Turnaround places an expert team (senior educator and social worker) in an intense consultancy with three schools over a three-year period and, in that time, the team partners with principals, creates sustainable new practices that produce a positive school culture, delivers new knowledge and establishes student support services, all of which eventually belong to the school itself. Public schools can and should be the solution for the many inequities in our society. We believe that a full turnaround strategy must include leader- and teacher-quality, and that school closure may at times be necessary. The Turnaround model for school change, however, proves that chronically underperforming schools can be transformed using broad, deep strategies that address the magnitude of adversity these schools face. In Turnaround’s experience, turning a dysfunctional school into a calm, engaging and effective place for learning and growth is only possible if you find a way to address that adversity.  Turnaround’s model powerfully integrates social and behavioral support—not just academic support—directly into the learning environment. We work with school staff to develop the systems, resources, and knowledge and skills to address the broad and intense set of needs presented by students and staff, all in the service of creating a positive school culture and a vibrant learning community dedicated to high achievement and healthy development.

And, Turnaround does this at a cost of $500 per child per year. This is one of the reasons that Turnaround has had the enthusiastic support of Chancellor Joel Klein as well as former Turnaround Board member Eric Holder, with whom Turnaround worked extensively on his Children Exposed to Violence Initiative.  Turnaround’s track record and cost structure positions it well at a time when national education reform efforts will increase the demand for models that can “restructure” persistently underperforming and failing schools.