School Turnaround AmeriCorps National Evaluation: Year 1 Final Report

The School Turnaround AmeriCorps grant program, launched in 2013–14, is a joint initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The grants provide support for AmeriCorps members, placed in low-performing schools, to help achieve the schools’ school improvement goals. The program provides additional resources to help increase the capacity of the lowest-achieving schools to implement their respective turnaround models successfully. The program’s goals are to improve students’ academic performance, academic engagement, attendance, high school graduation rates, and college readiness. By 2014–15, its second year, the program was operating in over 70 schools.

This report provides an overview of the goals of the School Turnaround AmeriCorps program and the approach and key questions the national evaluation is designed to address. It presents contextual information about the 13 grantee programs in their second year of partnering with over 70 of the lowest-achieving 5 percent of School Improvement Grant (SIG) or Priority status schools in the 2014–15 school year. It documents the types and nature of services that the over 450 School Turnaround AmeriCorps members provide to support schools’ efforts to meet their turnaround plan goals. Findings on implementation effectiveness and the perceived impacts of the program in improving student outcomes are presented from multiple program and school stakeholders’ perspectives: grantee staff, members, school leaders, teachers, and parents.