[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-603240-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":80,"doc-detail-603240-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":73,"head_meta":75,"extra_data":77,"updated_unix":79},105,"en","turnaround-leadership-a-strategy-for-targeting-low-performing-schools-and-sustainable-system-change","Turnaround Leadership - A strategy for targeting low-performing schools and sustainable system change","","Turnaround Leadership analyzes leadership strategies for improving persistently low-performing schools and situating school-level change within sustainable system change. It argues that apparent turnaround success is often superficial and illusory, shaped by complex intended and unintended consequences of interventions. Drawing on evidence from England and detailed studies in high-accountability states, it contrasts accountability and capacity building and shows how improvements may reach acceptable levels without building durable internal commitment or meaningful performance goals.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/turnaround-leadership-a-strategy-for-targeting-low-performing-schools-and-sustainable-system-change/603240/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/turnaround-leadership-a-strategy-for-targeting-low-performing-schools-and-sustainable-system-change/603240.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"moss~","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":26},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What does the essay define as turnaround leadership and why is it complex?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"Turnaround leadership refers to leadership needed to reverse persistently low-performing schools. The essay stresses that assessing interventions is complex because intended and unintended consequences are difficult to disentangle.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"How does the essay distinguish accountability from capacity building?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"Accountability relies on targets, inspections, and monitoring with action consequences, while capacity building focuses on increasing school power through knowledge, competencies, motivation, and resources. They are not entirely mutually exclusive but involve different mechanisms.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What do the cited studies suggest about the durability of turnaround results?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"Even when systems show some improvement in achievement scores, the essay argues that meaningful performance goals and sustained internal commitment often fail to develop. Gains may remain superficial or fail to establish conditions for maintaining or enhancing progress.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},603240,1792928678,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":26,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":111,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":117},962090895452,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Turnaround Leadership  \nby Michael Fullan  \nTurnaround leadershipconcernsthe kindof leadership neededfor turning around a persistently low-performingschooltoonethat is performingacceptablyasmeasuredbystudentachievementaccordingtostatetests.I firsttreatthis question inthe narrowsense, i.e., asastrategy fortargeting low-performingschools, andthen place itina largercontext—namely, how suchturnaroundcan be partofanoverallapproachtosustainablesystem change.Thesequence Iwillconsider movesfromtheschooltothedistrictto thesystem asawhole. Myconclusion,which Istate upfront, isthatwhat looks like apparent success inturning around schools is actually quite superficial and indeed illusory.  \nAssessing the roles of strong interventions for failing schools is quite complicated, even in the narrow sense, because the combination of intended and unintended consequences is difficult to sort out. Let’s begin with England, which since 1993 has had a system of national inspections to identify schools in need of “special measures”to improve their performance. This designation results in a series of interventions to“right” the school. Overall, the results have been positive in that a turnaround has happened in the majority of cases, and increasingly the timeline for turnaround has been reduced as the interventions have become more refined.  \nEarly experiences in England were captured in Stoll and Myers’(1998) collection of cases entitled No Quick Fixes: Perspectives on Schools in Difficulty. In one assessment by Stark (1998), 86 percent of 90 schools on special measures made good progress within two years, while several of the remaining ones closed, requiring students to move to other schools. Stark (1998, 35) concluded,“Public identification of unacceptable standards tends to speed, rather than delay, recovery.”  \n174 Educational  \nEssays  \nBefore introducing other complications, a distinction between accountability and capacity building, or what used to be called pressure and support, needs to be made. They are not entirely mutually exclusive in that some forms of accountability have elements of support, and some forms of support have elements of pressure or built-in accountability. Be that as it may, accountability involves targets, inspections, or other forms of monitoring along with action consequences. Capacity building consists of developments that increase the collective power in the school in terms of new knowledge and competencies, increased motivation to engage in improvement actions, and additional resources (time, money, and access to expertise) .  \nWhen turnaround intervention combines accountability and capacity-building strategies, things usually improve (to a point, but more about that later). The factors at play according to Stark (1998) included raising expectations, a focus on improving teaching, new or enhanced leadership by principals, and external intervention. Even in cases of improvement in England, the increase often was to the acceptable level only, not higher, and more tellingly, usually did not establish the conditions for maintaining, let alone enhancing the gains.  \nA more complex picture was portrayed in Mintrop’s (2003) in-depth study of 11 schools in two high-accountability states, Maryland and Kentucky. He first set out the hypothetical assumptions which underpin high-stakes external accountability policies that place schools on probation. Though Mintrop (2003) said that policy makers do not explicitly spell out why the labeling of schools as low performers along with threats of further penalties would be effective motivators, plausible assumptions could be:  \n• High-stakes accountability improves teacher motivation. When a school is publicly labeled as deficient, teachers, after going through a whole range of emotions, accept the urgency of improvement.  \n• High-stakes accountability positively affects organizational development. Most accountability systems hold whole schools, rather than individuals, accountable f","cbCaijHGJPUkhvRt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijHGJPUkhvRt","pdf",88390,"English","# Turnaround Leadership: Scope and conclusions\n## Turning around low-performing schools within system change\n## Accountability vs. capacity building\n## Evidence from England and high-accountability states\n## What “success” does—and does not—produce","[{\"question\":\"What does the essay define as turnaround leadership and why is it complex?\",\"answer\":\"Turnaround leadership refers to leadership needed to reverse persistently low-performing schools. The essay stresses that assessing interventions is complex because intended and unintended consequences are difficult to disentangle.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay distinguish accountability from capacity building?\",\"answer\":\"Accountability relies on targets, inspections, and monitoring with action consequences, while capacity building focuses on increasing school power through knowledge, competencies, motivation, and resources. They are not entirely mutually exclusive but involve different mechanisms.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the cited studies suggest about the durability of turnaround results?\",\"answer\":\"Even when systems show some improvement in achievement scores, the essay argues that meaningful performance goals and sustained internal commitment often fail to develop. Gains may remain superficial or fail to establish conditions for maintaining or enhancing progress.\"}]","Turnaround Leadership - A strategy for targeting low-performing schools and sustainable system change | PDF",1792095950]