Improving Struggling Schools: A Developmental Approach to Intervention

Over the last few years, state accountability systems across the country have directed an increasingly bright light at the problem of chronically underperforming schools. The problem is hardly new, but the sheer number of failing schools facing takeover and restructuring is unprecedented. This crisis is rapidly becoming the leading concern of the accountability movement. Improving Struggling Schools draws on a blend of case studies and the emerging body of research on failing schools to identify patterns in the challenges they face. Arguing that school improvement is a developmental process, Stephens points out that “struggling schools look very different and need very different kinds of support as they move from stage to stage.” He outlines a new approach that takes into account the patterns of growth and change in troubled schools, the foundational dilemmas schools face as they navigate this trajectory, and the overarching need to overcome the isolation and confusion that so often thwart schools’ efforts to move forward.

About the Author :
D. Brent Stephens is currently the principal of Anthony Ochoa Middle School in Hayward, California. He has also served as a K-8 principal in Somerville, Massachusetts; as a central office administrator in Lowell, Massachusetts; and as a Spanish bilingual teacher in Boston and Oakland, California. He holds a doctorate from the Urban Superintendents Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and has earned certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Review :
"Stephens brings a profound, almost novelistic empathy to the experience of schools struggling with dilemmas of instructional improvement. He unites this empathy, the product of years in the classroom, with a truly lucid understanding of how larger policy and implementation frames interact with the micropolitics and unique cultures of people in schools. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the next phase of educational reform. Andres A. Alonso, CEO, Baltimore City Public Schools" State education agencies charged with turning around struggling schools need to confront the reality of school improvement planning richly detailed in these case studies. We have rarely examined, as Stephens has here, the powerful allure and...drag of the compliance-focused response that most state intervention practices provoke. This has to change. Stephens points to a promising new direction for our work. Karla Brooks Baehr, Deputy Commissioner for Accountability, Assistance, and Partnership, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education" Stephens defines the next level of work in school improvement and accountability in hopeful and tangible terms. For all believers in excellent education for all, this book elucidates the path from vision to reality. Brian G. Osborne, superintendent, School District of South Orange and Maplewood, New Jersey" With this book, Brent Stephens gives new meaning to the term reflective practitioner. An accomplished educational leader himself, he gives us a highly nuanced, well-researched, and disciplined view of the hard work of school improvement. Improving Struggling Schools is a much-needed corrective to conventional, simplistic turnaround views of school improvement. Richard F. Elmore, Gregory Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education"