Article

Abstract



The article discusses a study by the authors on school leaders' ability to create and maintain a turnaround in low-performing schools. It shows that the financial statement in most high-poverty school is a restricted dilemma that doesn’t allow fair teaching, and it also states priorities. It shows questions that schools should ask themselves, including whether the research they have done will influence classroom and school leaders, whether policies and practices are manufacturing low achievement, and whether all students are proficient in reading. Questions about the learning environment include school safety, the influence of poverty on learning, and bonds between students and school. It cites several high-poverty schools that became high-performing schools through the process of asking important questions and working persistently on systemic improvement.































Introduction



Tough questions come with tough times, our school system is going down under, and what are we doing to stop it? Elementary schools are allowing their students to pass grade levels without reading at the proper grade level, and some can’t even add or subtract. What measurements should we stop allowing kids to continue on to the next grade level, and on what grounds should we let them continue, without the proper knowledge or the proper tools? We are telling kids it is okay to just barely get by, that it is okay to continue even if you don’t know the steps to further your education. How can we stop teachers from doing what they think is right? Who can we talk to, to inform the community the standards of their world, between the standards of the real world? Luckily there is a solution to every problem.

At Granger high school, that was known to be undeveloped and an inadequately graded school, has changed. A sixteen year old that was interviewed was ecstatic about the future. She stated “It didn’t used to be that way here, my sister told me…but that’s all different now. I’m hoping to go to a university in two years!”(William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) Dayton’s Bluff Elementary School has also taken a turn for the better. This school, which was known for being the “lowest-performing elementary school in Saint Paul, and the lowest- performing in Minnesota” (Gorski P, 2008), has taken a toll for good measures. They have celebrated having accomplished their goal of reading a million words in the past year. Principal Andrew Collins proudly exclaims that “twenty-five books were read this year by each of our students, and we’re letting our community know about it!” (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) It seems that inadequately graded schools are now making a change for the better. Instead of coming out as C, D, or even F schools. They are making a comeback and even some competition for the upper level schools. As we continue to grow knowledgeable from research on school effects (Teddlie & Stringfield, 199), with more recent analyses of strategies that have guided hundreds of schools in their successful efforts to reverse historic trends of underachievement (Barr & Parrett, 2006; Calkins, Guenther, Belfiore, & Lash, 2007; Chenoweth, 2007; Duke, 2007), we initiated a study seeking to understand how school leaders actions influence a turnaround in low-performing schools.

Schools didn’t only get to where they are today by statistics and historical facts, they also had to ask the right questions, to the right people. Considering the economic down fall due to the recession budget cuts have hit home, when it comes to school. While coming to a bump in the road, they try to begin over coming one obstacle at a time. The first question that is being asked is “Building the necessary leadership capacity; Focusing the staff’s everyday core work on students, professional, and system learning; and creating and fostering a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment for all. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) Facing such a financial decline, these questions can help a school run, more effectively and allow them to concentrate on the main goal; the students future, how just because it effects us now, they can make a difference.

We have new obstacles to over come, does that mean now we eliminated our bad habits that manufacture low achievements? Just because you have bad habits, doesn’t mean your habits will continue as new options come about. Richard Esparza is Granger High school principal. He has been there through the bad, and now he is living through the change, the way things are suppose to be. He states that “All principal must accept that some students may fail, but you don’t stop there.” He has required that if students receive below a C on a test, they are required to get extra help. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) You should be concerned about your students, just because they listen, doesn’t mean they comprehend. A lot of students work better with individual help; they might not get a lecture the first time. This is why extra activities are required, they help students practice what they know, and some students will be able to learn it from their peers.

Learning doesn’t stop in schools; it also starts in the community and at home. When you build positive and productive relationships with students’ families and the broader neighborhood and community this helps high-performing and high- poverty schools. They go about interacting the communities, family, and schools together through service learning projects. Using service learning projects, allow students to help out the community. They are shown what happens outside of school walls, and outside of video games, and the internet. They are more active and become more knowledgeable about different subjects, they also stay out of trouble.

Tough decisions, for tough times, the schools that were studied to continue to develop successful rating, express confidence that the processes they had in place would guide their decisions regarding the use of possible stimulus funding. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) To maintain a high- performing school they also need to maintain a good staff. Funding is down, but to maintain this high- performing they want to add staff, because keeping personnel is key to a low student- teacher ratio and caring relationships in school; and providing targeted support to the students who need it most. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008)

Schools can become a high-performance school, all they need is motivation, and confidence that their students will be able to come out of their bad habits, and continue new and improve habits. If not then those kids will be kept back, there is a pro and con for everything, and a consequence for become the best. To every great leader, there is a road, he or she must follow, and that road leads to greatness, but only you can become great.