Markham Middle School Highlights the Need for School Turnaround, and Policies to Support Turnaround Efforts � The Quick and the Ed

Markham Middle School Highlights the Need for School Turnaround, and Policies to Support Turnaround Efforts � The Quick and the Ed

Markham Middle School Highlights the Need for School Turnaround, and Policies to Support Turnaround Efforts

by Rob Manwaring

We released a report yesterday that highlighted Markham middle school, a low performing Los Angeles school serving low income Hispanic and black students. Markham illustrate both the need for school districts and states to take dramatic action to improve the lowest performing schools in this country, and the need to make sure that any school turnaround effort is also supported by district and state policies, especially its human capital policies.
Lesson 1. Our lowest performing schools need dramatic change not just marginal and piecemeal reforms. The report highlights the saga of Markham Middle school, a chronically low performing school in Los Angeles Unified. Markham was first identified as a low performing school under federal law in 1997 and has been so ever since ( it was likely low performing long before that). Prior to the No Child Left Behind Act, states and districts were charged with determining how to identify the lowest performing schools. Given that flexibility, California changed how it determined which schools were low performing as its testing standards and accountability systems developed. Throughout all of these changes in how low performance was measured, one thing stayed consistent. Markham was in the group of schools that were labeled. The school was charged with developing numerous improvement plans for both state and federal programs. These programs had impressive titles including School Improvement Grants, Immediate Intervention for Underperforming Schools Program, Comprehensive School Reform Demonstrations, High Priority Schools Program, and the Quality Education Investment Act. All of these