School Turnaround Cost Analysis Tool

Across the United States, state departments of education, regional educational organizations, and districts are helping low-performing schools improve. Some popular approaches to supporting these schools involve (1) helping them collect and use data—such as climate surveys and comprehensive needs assessments—to guide their planning and (2) providing coaches to work with teachers, principals, and district leaders.

Despite state and regional commitments to actively turn around low-performing schools, and despite there being specific strategies for doing so, there is very little information about the financial implications of these goals. The School Turnaround Cost Analysis Tool helps education leaders assess potential costs of some of the more popular and research-supported approaches. By entering user-specific parameters, such as the average principal salary in the region or the number of visits that a school should receive from a coach, users can get a tailored cost estimate. Tool users might compare two options by opening separate windows.

Methodology

This tool estimates costs for six activities that states or other support providers often use to assist with school turnaround:

  • Conducting schoolwide teacher surveys on conditions for teaching and learning, which can inform turnaround planning. These data help schools identify their strengths and needs. Costs include developing and administering the survey, teachers’ time to complete it, and data analysis.
  • Conducting comprehensive school needs assessments. Costs include development and training on how to use the tool, time for state or other support providers and school staff to work together on conducting the assessment and examining the data, time for support providers to produce a report, and travel costs.
  • Providing guidance and tools for SIPs. Costs include development and training on the data system and time for state or other support providers to review and comment on SIPs.
  • Providing instructional coaching to teachers. Coaching costs include state or other support provider and school staff time and travel expenses.
  • Providing school leadership coaching to principals. Coaching costs include support provider and school staff time and travel expenses.
  • Providing coaching to district leaders. Coaching costs include support provider and district staff time and travel expenses.

The tool is designed to help education policy leaders incorporate cost considerations in their plans to support the turnaround of low-performing public schools. It might be especially useful for state departments of education, regional education providers, and large districts. Users can enter state- or region-specific parameters to produce per-school and state- or region-wide cost estimates overall, as well as per-school cost estimates for each support activity.

For full data source information, please visit the documentation page.