Teacher Teams Help Schools Turn Around

It's hard to imagine two schools superficially more different from each other than Blackstone Elementary, with its labyrinthine 1970s layout, and Orchard Gardens K-8 School, which opened in 2003, with its modern skylights and cheery primary-color accents. But they were similar in the way that matters most in young lives: Both Boston schools were among the poorest-performing in Massachusetts. Now, though, district and school leaders think the pair may have turned the corner, thanks in part to an influx of a corps of top teachers in each school. Achievement has improved at both. At Orchard Gardens, teacher attrition seems to be on the wane--no small feat for the school, which has had six principals in seven years. Both schools, plus a third in the district, are participating in a novel turnaround venture that attracts and seeks to retain highly effective teachers through a bundle of incentives, including leadership opportunities, a structure for peer learning, and increased pay. Now wrapping up its first year, the initiative is providing insights into the role of teachers in overhauling the culture of a low-performing school--as well as giving way to new questions about the nature of teacher leadership and how to develop it.