"Turnaround schools" is a popular term in education reform.
While the debate continues over the best ways to change America's lowest-performing schools, one point is clear: Strong administrative leadership is critical.
In Minneapolis, a district with a large number of highly challenged schools, there is a new focus on turning around central-office administration. A recent consultant's review found that district leadership leaves a lot to be desired.
Within the last seven months, the district has had several embarrassing mishaps. First, it announced the wrong dollar amount for the teacher contract agreement that took 18 months to settle.
School officials initially said the new contract would cost $10.9 million; later, they said the actual amount was $14.7 million.
Then officials had to cancel an agreement with a website development firm and could lose $70,000 on the deal. And a new principal at Broadway High School discovered that several unlicensed teachers were on the staff -- a situation that is illegal and means graduation will be delayed for at least a dozen students this spring.
Each of those problems damages the district's credibility and highlights its management problems. And each of them might have been avoided if the district had a better leadership structure, as the consultant concluded.
Minneapolis Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and the school board should take the evaluator's recommendations to heart and correct longstanding problems with top and middle management.