Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: Evidence-Based Practices

REL West Event Proceedings - Tempe, Arizona

Produced by: Regional Educational Laboratory West at WestEd

This document summarizes Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: Evidence-Based Practices, a one-day event held on March 17, 2009 in Tempe, Arizona. Sponsored by REL West and the Southwest Comprehensive Center, the event brought together 80 administrators from state departments of education, school districts, and school sites in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to expand their knowledge of evidence-based strategies for turning around chronically low-performing schools and to learn from one another’s experiences.

Part of a U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) initiative to bring evidence to practice, the event focused on the four recommended practices featured in Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools, one in a series of practice guides published by IES, and on related resources on the Doing What Works website. Participants had multiple opportunities to discuss research findings and website resources and to consider how they could be applied to state, district, and school support systems and improvement plans.

The event proceedings report includes background context, summaries of the presentations, key ideas and examples shared by participants, common concerns and next steps that emerged, and additional resources related to the event topic.

Information about the regional educational laboratory (REL) system and other REL publications can be found at the National Regional Educational Laboratory Program website.