The turnaround merry-go-round: Dizziness ensues

yes Pamela Tatz / December 17, 2012

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education released an analysis of the federal School Improvement Grants program, which invests in persistently underperforming schools with the expectation that they will turn around. The early results of its most recent $3-billion infusion?  “Mixed.”

And yesterday, we were joined by three leading voices on urban schooling for a full-on SIG Smackdown: the Department of Education's Carmel Martin, Bellwether Education and Fordham edu-wonk Andy Smarick, and former Chicago schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.

The event also played out on Twitter. See the whole timeline of events on the event page.

Checker is punchy this AM--he's already jabbed fed, state, AND local govt. efficiency #SIGSmackdown

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) December 17, 2012

Carmel boarded the carousel first, making the claim that the SIG program has the potential to turn schools around—if we give it more time:

Carmel Martin: I view the SIG program with pragmatic realism--cautious optimism #SIGSmackdown

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) December 17, 2012

.@educationgadfly Which is an argument for federal humility! #sigsmackdown

— Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) December 17, 2012

.@educationgadfly: I'm curious for Carmel's take on the new SIG models that were proposed under the Senate ESEA renewal bill.

— Politics K-12 (@PoliticsK12) December 17, 2012

Martin pre-rebuts @smarick: Charters need to be a part of the solution, but can't give up on the public sector

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) December 17, 2012

Raring to go, Andy Smarick began dismantling the SIG carousel horse by horse:

@smarick: 1/6th of SIG schools made double-digit gains in reading. While 40% got WORSE. Is this worth $5 billion? #SIGSmackdown

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) December 17, 2012

@educationgadfly @smarick Invest in replication of what works. Then accelerate. Cheaper. Better. Faster. #CharterSchools

— Robbyn Wahby (@rgwahby) December 17, 2012

Unfortunately, Andy forgot one key detail:

@smarick not so good at publicizing his new book--Checker takes the helm to do it for him ow.ly/g9U2u #SIGSmackdown

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) December 17, 2012

Jean-Claude Brizard, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, gave us all a reality check:

Brizard: Can't fix failing schools w/out fixing failing districts. Policies, politics matter #SIGSmackdown

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) December 17, 2012

@educationgadfly An important emergent theme is to allow principals & their teachers the flexibility to drive strategy. Amen.

— StudentsFirstOH (@StudentsFirstOH) December 17, 2012

Thanks to all who attended. You can now watch the smackdown for yourself.

Category: Governance