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With school turnarounds near the top of the administration's agenda, one turnaround model is getting the lion's share of attention: Close the school, get a new principal, hire a new batch of teachers, and start from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not clear that this model is more feasible or effective than any other.

Evidence on effective turnaround strategies is scant, to say the least. To favor any one model is, at least to some degree, to fire a shot in the dark. School reconstitutions will founder if few qualified teachers and leaders are waiting in the wings to replace those who have been dismissed. This is no trivial problem as we prepare to turn around hundreds or even thousands of schools across the country.

Even if an entirely new crop of teachers does materialize, there is no guarantee a turnaround will succeed. It doesn't much help to change the cast of characters if you don't change the conditions for success. Most struggling schools need a better instructional program, better curriculum, better support for staff, better practices to improve student behavior, and better measures to address out-of-school influences on school success.

NPR recently ran a story about an apparently effective school turnaround strategy that keeps existing staff. The story describes the work of Turnaround for Children, a non-profit organization that helps schools address social or emotional barriers to student learning. According to a spokesman for the organization:

"The critical issue is being able to separate out which ones really are the highest-need kids, which ones really need mental health services, which ones need support from the social service organizations, which ones' parents need housing, which ones need help from an immigration lawyer..."

The turnaround program also assists teachers with classroom management. According to one teacher who has participated in the program, "It's so amazing to see what can be done once you get the behavior stuff out of the way."

According to research by the American Institutes for Research, New York City schools partnering with Turnaround for Children posted larger state assessment gains than did city schools as a whole. They also showed substantial improvement in student attendance and discipline.

Conditions matter.