I am pleased to announce that our report on "Emerging Practices in Rapid Achievement Gain Schools" is now available for dissemination. Focusing on the 10 Level 4 schools that demonstrated rapid achievement in student academic achievement between 2010 and 2011, the purpose of this report was to identify and then clearly articulate key practices being used by these "Rapid Achievement Gain" schools. This report is intended to inform the ongoing efforts of districts and schools in Massachusetts engaged in turnaround efforts. Given the importance of turnaround as a part of the national school reform effort, we think that the practices identified in this report will be meaningful and applicable to districts and schools across the country.

A couple of key points to be made about this report:
1 - Because this report looks at schools after only one year of turnaround efforts, the findings must be considered tentative. We don't know if the 10 schools used to develop findings will continue to make rapid gains.
2 - Because many of these schools initiated reform efforts prior to receiving federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds, this report should not be used to make judgements about the usefulness or effectiveness of the federal intervention models, or the use of funds, external providers, or other aspects of school turnaround overall.
3 - The practices identified in this report are not new. Rather, what is important is (1) the focus and intensity of each practice and (2) that these practices worked in tandem; they are not isolated practices. To the point, rapid achievement gain schools had each of these practices in place, not just one or two; moreover, they were implementing the practices strategically, intentionally, and with a laser-like focus on improving instruction.

Additional resources on Massachusetts Level 4 Turnaround work:

Memo to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Announcement of Gains Made by Level 4 Schools, 2011

Level 4 District and Schools