Spinning the Numbers on Turnarounds: School Improvement Grant Controversy Brews
It has been said that "numbers tell the tale." But at the Education Writers Association forum on School Improvement Grants in Chicago yesterday, I saw the same numbers being used to tell some very different stories -- raising serious questions about efforts to improve schools by closing them or giving them "turnaround" treatments.
Chicago has long been the epicenter for school "turnarounds." Going way back to 1997, this city has had strong mayoral control of its schools, and has experimented with school closures, reconstitutions, and the latest version, turnarounds. Former Chicago education CEO Arne Duncan brought this approach to the federal level through Race to the Top and an ambitious $4.5 billion School Improvement Grant program, targeting the lowest 5% of schools across the country.
Early in the day, we heard from Jason Snyder, the man in charge of turnarounds at the
