Turnaround Education

by Simone Levinson
September 14, 2009 at 5:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/796/turnaround-education

It has been unsettling to see the crisis of our public school system. It felt as though we were sweeping the ocean with a broomstick. Then two years ago, Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber, PhD introduced me to one of the most innovative and effective programs in education reform today.

Turnaround For Children, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization, founded by Pamela Cantor, M.D., that transforms schools once considered to be “chronically failing” into vibrant institutions for learning. Once underperforming in the lowest 20% in the city, these schools now produce high levels of academic accomplishment. Working with more than 50 schools to date throughout New York, Turnaround provides tools and methods for positive and sustainable change.

The public schools of New York City have enjoyed great strides over the past seven years since Mayoral Control was passed. Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein asked to be held accountable and were given the governance to get the job done. The graduation rate is now the highest in decades, having increased 22% from 2002 to 2007. This year alone there has been an increase of 11.2 points on English Language Arts (ELA) exams and a 7.5 point increase on Math exams. What makes the Turnaround story even more compelling is that our schools realized a 13.7 point increase on ELA exams and a 12.5 point increase on Math exams. Some of these results have occurred in schools within just nine months of having been exposed to the Turnaround team and model. Turnaround outpaced the already impressive citywide gains by a substantial margin…and all at a cost of $3.75/per child per day.

We are also grateful to the charter schools for shattering the racial achievement gap. The percent of African American and Hispanic students performing at grade level has increased almost 50% in the past four years. They have led the way to showing what is possible for these children - and all children - when organizational systems are put in place that reward success and foster hope.

Even so, it is not enough. With 1,100,000 children in our school system, charter schools with an enrollment of 24,000 children only service the tip of the iceberg. Turnaround For Children creates the systemic changes we need now in order to protect the future of the remaining 1,075,000 children in a structure that is so desperate for what this organization provides.

It has been through such visionary funders as Robin Hood, The Tiger Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Starr Foundation and JP Morgan Chase and as well as countless individuals that have enabled this development and growth. We are also embarking on our Inaugural Benefit for Spring 2010, when we honor Joel Klein, Peri Peltz and Merryl Tisch.

As a mother of a seven year old son, James, and a 20 month old daughter, Lauren, I think about what their lives will look like 30 years from now, and what kind of city and country they will inherit. We all know that the quality of education children receive today will shape the doctors, law makers and citizens that inhabit our world tomorrow.

For more information, please visit our website at www.turnaroundusa.org

© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free gatestone institute mailing list.

Comment on this item

2 Reader Comments

Ted Cohen • Jun 23, 2013 at 16:48

By TED COHEN
National Writers Union
Member ID 63315

ORANGE, N.J. - An education think-tank with a mission to reach at-risk children in under-performing schools has prematurely suspended its programs in the local schools, it has been learned.

Tax documents filed with the IRS by Turnaround For Children Inc. disclose the program's unexpected suspension.

The documents, a public record, also reveal that Turnaround was forced to return the remaining part of the grant that funded the program.

"Management decided to terminate its three-school program earlier than planned," Turnaround officials told the Internal Revenue Service.

Turnaround officials blamed the short-lived program's demise on a "shift in organizational priorities."

But officials failed to disclose what they meant by the change or who instigated it.

Turnaround officials say they suspended their request for the remaining funding they were to receive for the Orange project, but they made no mention of the amount of funding they had already received and the amount they were still due.

Orange school officials were not available for immediate comment, nor were Turnaround officials.

Though Turnaround proudly announced the Orange project in its September 2010 newsletter, there is no evidence on the organization's web site that Turnaround officials ever notified the public of the program's suspension.

The program's failure is all the more ironic in view of Orange Supt. Ronald Lee's report to his bosses in 2010 that "plans for expansion are in the works." The program at the time was in three schools. Then, as soon as it began, it was gone.

The failed Orange program comes amid a report from American Institutes for Research - which audits school-intervention programs - that such projects have mixed success.

"Many turnarounds are short-lived," researchers wrote in their recent report. "Studies of turnaround schools, as well as anecdotal evidence collected from hundreds of turnaround leaders, consistently show challenges in maintaining and
building on the early successes."

They also cited a school-improvement study that found "substantial fluctuation in test scores of schools that initially appeared to be turnaround successes" but which in the subsequent year saw failing test scores. "Some met the targets one year only to fail the next," the report said.

Moreover, "some schools lost additional funding when they met performance targets and had to abandon the extended learning-time programs that had helped them raise student achievement."

Turnaround is currently working to introduce its programs into some Newark schools.

Ted Cohen is a veteran newspaper and radio reporter. He can be reached at tedcohen@hotmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @TedCohen1.

Reply->

Ted Cohen

Ted Cohen • Jun 24, 2013 at 23:08

After I went to the press with the article above, I received the following email from Kate Felsen, vice president of communications for Turnaround Children USA:

"I see that you have some questions about Turnaround for Children's work in the Orange Public School District. I am sorry that you did not speak with me before posting your piece on our Facebook page and tweeting out messages over the weekend characterizing our work inaccurately."

Felsen added, "Turnaround for Children had a fruitful partnership with three schools in Orange, New Jersey during the 2010-11 school year. Our hope was to expand the partnership, in particular to deliver a significant amount of professional development to teachers and to increase our engagement district-wide. Unfortunately, Orange Public Schools did not have the capacity to take on the professional development we had to offer during the 2011-12 year. For this reason, we ended our partnership amicably."

"Thank you for your interest in Turnaround for Children."

Reply->