The inspiration for this book was a crucial observation: that if the school turnaround movement is to have widespread and lasting consequences, it will need to incorporate meaningful district involvement in its efforts.

The result is a volume that considers school turnaround efforts at the district level, examining the evidence thus far and indicating fruitful directions for district-based initiatives going forward. At the heart of the book are case studies of districts--in Philadelphia, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Denver, Sacramento, and Long Beach--that have developed systemwide policies and programs for instituting turnaround reforms in their member schools. These cases--and the book as a whole--bring district-based initiatives and options into the larger discussion of the turnaround movement and its potential for improving chronically low-performing schools.
About the Author: Heather Zavadsky is director of research and implementation for Educate Texas, a unique public-private alliance dedicated to significantly improving the postsecondary readiness of low-income students in Texas. She has more than twenty years of experience in education research and practice, with a particular emphasis on urban education, district data and accountability systems, teacher quality, systemic district and school reform, and special education.

Before coming to Educate Texas, Dr. Zavadsky was the Director of Policy at The University of Texas System Institute for Public School Initiatives. From 2002 to 2006, she managed The Broad Prize for Urban Education for the National Center for Education Accountability, where she led the national data collection and analysis, designed and led a rigorous site visit review process for the finalists, presented the final data to the jury, and showcased the finalist and winning districts through a national symposium, articles, and presentations. She also conducted research for the Charles A. Dana Center and led the charter renewal process for The University of Texas at Austin's University Charter School. Additionally, she taught for six years as a special education teacher and worked extensively with students with autism.

Dr. Zavadsky is the author of Building School Reform to Scale: Five Exemplary Urban Districts (Harvard Education Press, 2009), as well as numerous papers and articles in scholarly journals. She holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education, a master's degree in special education, a master's degree in education administration, and a PhD in educational administration with a specialization in educational policy and planning.