At CityBridge, we have structured our work based on a central, attainable goal:  Washington, DC will become a national proof-point for urban cities, demonstrating to the country and its leaders—as no other city can—that all children can flourish academically, regardless of socio-economic background.  The work of producing these results, however, unfolds at the level of individual schools, where parents, teachers and leaders strive to deliver results for students.  The hardest single place to achieve this success is to demonstrate “turnaround” progress for our city’s chronically failing schools.  It is this hard challenge to which CityBridge turns for our next portfolio.    

CityBridge’s new portfolio, Breakthrough Schools, is a five-year effort to build capacity for school turnaround in both DCPS and the charter sector.  After five months of intensive research on the failures, successes, and new prospects in the young field of turnaround, we believe there are three central elements necessary for a healthy turnaround environment:

1. Autonomy and Accountability.  Successful school turnaround requires some level of autonomy over decisions reflecting people, time, programming and money.  In return for these managerial freedoms, school leaders should accept full accountability for student results.

2. District-level Support. Effective turnaround requires knowledgeable, supportive District or city-level leadership that can help identify and remove barriers to success.

3. Embedded, Intensive Anti-Poverty Supports for Students. Given that most chronically troubled schools have high poverty levels, intensive, aligned supports—especially social-emotional supports—are needed to neutralize the barriers to learning that poverty often creates.   These embedded supports should ideally provide students with the services they need, teachers with the training to respond appropriately to high-poverty environments, and staff with the protocols to effectively involve parents and families.