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A Think Twice Review of:

Dramatic Action, Dramatic Improvement: the Research on School Turnaround

Think Twice - May 11, 2015

Publisher/Think Tank - Center for American Progress (CAP)

Author(s) - The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently released a report advocating for implementation of evidence-based best practices for turning around low-performing schools through the federal School Im

The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently released a report advocating for implementation of evidence-based best practices for turning around low-performing schools through the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. It concluded that five dramatic actions are necessary to bring about dramatic school improvement. An academic review finds the rationale for its assertions to be narrow, incoherent, and misleading.


Reviewer(s) - Tina Trujillo, University of California Berkeley

Tina Trujillo, in her review, finds that the report essentially ignores large bodies of research on high-stakes accountability, school improvement, and emerging evidence on school closures and federally funded turnarounds. Specifically, Trujillo cautions that a more inclusive review of extant research “reveals that the federal SIG program’s turnaround policies are based on unwarranted claims and are contradicted by the empirical evidence.” Trujillo’s review identifies that the report failed to meet standards for evidence and analytic transparency, and is of little use to policymakers or practitioners.