A Preliminary Analysis of a Strategic Staffing Initiative

Abstract

The authors evaluated a reform program known as “Strategic Staffing” in which principals were given increased autonomy to modify the delivery of instruction without compromising academic content. The program’s central feature was reassignment of school leaders and key staff members from settings in which they were successful to schools experiencing deep and chronic levels of low student performance. The authors used a causal-comparative design with schools matched on key demographic variables as well as qualitative analyses of key features of treatment schools. After 1 year of implementation, the authors found that achievement scores and other indicators were not statistically significantly different across turnaround schools. Participating principals reported similar concerns, plans, and challenges to those documented in previous studies. The authors discuss their work in the growing knowledge base addressing turnaround in chronically low-achieving schools.