Only three
years ago, P.S.
32 was one of the worst-performing schools in the
grade school. How did P.S. 32 undergo such a positive transformation in such a
short period of time?
The short answer is that it partnered with an
inspiring organization known as Turnaround for Children.
If you care about the quality, success and future
of public education in New York City and everywhere—indeed, if you care about
our nation’s ability to produce a workforce that can compete with the educated
masses of other countries—you’ll want to familiarize yourself with Turnaround
for Children, which specializes in helping the most challenged schools
transform themselves into thriving educational environments where there are
universally high expectations for student achievement and development. In doing
so, Turnaround closes the achievement gap and fosters true hope in its
students, families, schools and communities.
Here, Turnaround’s founder, Dr. Pamela Cantor, explains how it works.
There are many educational programs
aimed at improving distressed schools. What makes Turnaround different? And
more effective?
Turnaround’s mission is to fulfill the promise of
public education by supporting the development of highly effective public
schools that foster in every student the academic, social and emotional competencies
needed for success in school and in life. This is the band of schools for which no other
model has achieved significant traction, schools that are plagued by all the
issues that reside in the poor urban communities that surround them. In Turnaround’s
experience, turning a dysfunctional school into a calm, engaging and effective
place for learning is only possible if you find a way to address the adversity
that students and teachers face each day. So the Turnaround model integrates
social and behavioral support—not just academic support—into the learning
environment.
How much does the program cost, and
how is it funded?
Turnaround’s intervention costs about $500 per
child. Schools pay part of the cost; other public sources like the City Council
contribute and the rest comes from philanthropic institutional or individual
donations. We have benefited from the generosity of funders like Robin Hood,
the Carnegie Corporation of
JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, CityBridge Foundation, the
Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, and many others. Some wonderful news on
this front is that we recently became part of the New Profit portfolio, a
venture philanthropy fund that helped to launch organizations like Teach for
How many
schools are you working in now, and where do you go from here?
In 2010-11, Turnaround
moved beyond its initial
partnering with 24 schools in
worked with more than 60 elementary, middle and high schools, and because of
our record, our reputation is growing among education policy makers across the
country. Not only has former
Turnaround board member U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder been a passionate
supporter, but last summer, I had the honor
of being one of five national presenters at the Aspen Institute’s Congressional
Education Program, which is an important annual gathering of Congressional
leaders invested in education policy. That, in turn, opened up more
working relationships with congressional leaders in education reform and other
policy makers. The positive buzz on Turnaround is also getting out to a more
general audience. They just posted an interview with me on the “Waiting For
Superman” website, which promotes effective
initiatives like ours. Some perspective: There are literally thousands
of public schools concentrated primarily in high-poverty urban communities that
are failing to achieve even the most basic educational goals. At the same time,
because of programs like Turnaround, there’s an emerging expectation among
educators that real success, not just incremental change, is possible at a
great number of these schools. So this is an extraordinary time of promise for
transforming low-performing schools into successful learning environments. In
the coming years, I expect that Turnaround increasingly will be a national
organization, working in strategic partnerships with school districts and other
organizations committed to serious reform.
What kind of
support do you offer?
Turnaround’s model
transforms schools from the inside out. Led by three problem-solving teams
focused on behavior, academics and school climate, the school staff learns to
reach students who had been “slipping through the cracks” and also create a positive
culture that fosters achievement for all students. Turnaround helps schools
establish systems of support for the neediest students, create linkages to
community services, and gives school staff the knowledge and skills to create
successful classroom environments. As a result of the Turnaround intervention,
schools have dramatically reduced the number of police reported incidents and
suspensions, improved teacher attendance and retention, and established the
foundations necessary for breakthrough academic achievement.
In terms that
a non-educator could understand, can you elaborate on the kinds of systems you
help put in place?
All schools are run by systems, but they’re usually invisible. In any
successful school, there are systems for safety, systems for supporting your
faculty, systems for involving parents in the school—all kinds of systems. In
our schools, the first system we put in place brings services and attention to
the kids whose disruptive behavior is having a large negative effect on the
school—in fact, often “bringing the school to its knees.” We ask the principal
to tell us about the kids who are essentially running the negative culture in
the school. The principal usually doesn’t have to think for more than two
seconds to name the kids. As part of the program, schools agree to hire a
full-time clinical social worker whom we supervise and train. Together we
develop a Student Intervention Team where we design specific plans with the
staff to bring targeted help to these students. And the moment that those kids
begin to get real help—when you see a kid who has been the leader of all of the
negative stuff in a school become a student, and when you see that student’s
parents become positive members of a school community—they are often your best
ambassadors. When you accomplish this in the first year, this lever is very
powerful in promoting culture change in the school going forward. Turnaround
and our partner schools are able to restore a positive climate for teaching and
learning within the first year.
What’s the next step?
As you begin to see calmer classrooms and more
time spent on academic tasks, you are able to go after the real mission of
schools, which is instructional efficacy for the teachers and academic and
personal gains for the kids. We do an enormous amount of staff development,
much of which we have created and some we discover “off the shelf” for the
teachers, tuning up their classroom skills by introducing them to good
strategies for working with kids who learn differently, enhancing reading and
math skills and moving the school toward enhanced forms of instruction
including differentiated instruction and project-based learning.
How long does it take for all these
changes to take hold, and for a chaotic school to be a very different kind of
place?
It’s not a quick fix. In our experience, it
typically takes three years and sometimes more for schools to be set on a
successful and sustainable path. Often, at the end of the third year, a school
will choose to begin working with other partner organizations that are focused
on new areas for growth often in academics, technology and youth development.
These higher order activities can’t take root in buildings that are chaotic,
but they can by the second or third year in a Turnaround school.
What makes a
school sustainable? How do you ensure that the changes you’ve put in place will
last?
A
sustainable school means that the knowledge, systems and resources in the
building are embedded in so many people that if any one person left, the
building would be fine. So, when a child comes from the community and happens
to be a highly disruptive kid in kindergarten, he or she is coming into a
healthy, safe, developed culture where a teacher will know what to do for that
child from the very beginning. Each adult in the building believes he or she is
responsible for the success and well-being of each child. In this type of
setting, there are many leaders, many strong teachers, and one child would not
be able to disrupt the learning of others. That’s a sustainable school.
The Annual
Benefit
Turnaround for Children’s Inaugural Benefit Dinner last April brought in
over $1.1 million to support its partnerships with public schools, a remarkable
show of support for the first-time benefit, which honored New York State Board
of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and
journalist Perri Peltz. The event’s Dinner Chairs were Simone and David
Levinson, and Judi Sorensen-Flom and Joseph Flom, and the Co-Chairs included
Cristina Greeven Cuomo and others. Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered the
keynote address.
Please Note: The second annual Benefit Dinner is
scheduled for
honoring Turnaround’s founding chairperson Dr. Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber, and
other education luminaries to be announced shortly. For more info, visit
Turnaround’s website (turnaroundusa.org), or call
