Duggan+Middle+School,+Springfield,+MA

Listed as one of 8 successful 'turnarounds' by Mass Insight http://www.massinsight.org/stg/research/turnaround-case-studies/

http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/general.aspx?topNavId=1&orgcode=02810320&orgtypecode=6&

Mass Insight report says school was restructured in Fall 2007, losing 70% of its staff. School went from 750 students to 450 students. More important, for evaluating success of 'turnaround' they admit that the student population changed a lot. Title I went from 97% down to 75% ELL went from 13% down to 4% Special Ed increased from 26% to 30% With these new demographics, it is hard to interpret score changes.

The Mass insight report is just based on the first year of the 'turnaround' and they say there are 'early indicators of positive progress' Now, with a few more years of data, we can track something like seventh grade math proficient or higher. 2007 (before turnaround) 4% 2008 4% 2009 11% 2010 14% 2011 10%

For the 2010-2011 school year, their aggregated results are: ELA 45% vs 69% for the state Math 16% vs 58% for the state

With their 'better' population, these dismal scores are no reason for celebration.