This week, the Department of Education released new videos featuring the personal testimonies of teachers, principals, parents and students explaining what it’s like to turn around low-performing schools. Called “Voices of Reform,” the videos look at schools in three cities that each underwent a different turnaround approach.
A variety of individuals talk about what happened as their schools went from struggling to high-achieving. The challenges and hard work as well as the joy that are part of many turnaround schools’ experience are reflected in the interview subjects’ own words, such as these from a first grade teacher at Mobile’s George C. Hall Elementary School: “The students have a sense of pride about themselves now. They have pride about not only the school but the community from which they come.”
Forest Grove High School, Forest Grove, Oregon
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
Pickett Middle School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
George C. Hall Elementary School, Mobile, Alabama
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
To view the complete Turnaround video playlist, click here.