There's no mystery in turning around low-performing or failing schools, but there are also no recipes. In Turnaround Principals for Underperforming Schools Rosemary Papa and Fenwick English identify the essential ingredients for success.

There's no mystery in turning around low-performing or failing schools, but there are also no recipes. In Turnaround Principals for Underperforming Schools Rosemary Papa and Fenwick English identify the essential ingredients for success. The causes of failure are complex and interactive. Schools are not inert structures but living organisms. Putting schools back together is a collaborative venture. It takes a team to turn around a school, but it all begins with the leadership. The key to success rests in a school leader who has a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of schooling, human motivation, and possesses the resiliency and energy to engage in altering the internal landscape of an unsuccessful school. Two veteran educators have put together a work based on their research and experience for the past half-century. They pull no punches. The challenge is not only to turn low-performing or failing schools around, but to enable them to become more socially just places for all students.

Chapter 1 CHAPTER ONE: Taking the Mystery Out of Turning Around Underperforming and Failing Schools
Chapter 2 CHAPTER TWO: Selecting Change Models: Changing What for What?
Chapter 3 CHAPTER THREE: Activist Leadership to Improve Schooling and Life Chances
Chapter 4 CHAPTER FOUR: The Yin and Yang of Successful School Turnarounds
Chapter 5 CHAPTER FIVE: It Takes Socially Just Activist Leaders to Turn Around Schools
Chapter 6 Appendix 1: Heuristics for the Activist Leader
Chapter 7 Appendix 2: Explicit Leader Beliefs and Actions
Chapter 8 Appendix 3: Trouble Shooting Guide