Two days after the city announced a groundbreaking new deal to let the teachers union run High School in the Community as a “turnaround,” the state offered a gesture of support for the effort.
New Haven was one of four districts invited by the state to apply to become part of the new “Commissioner’s Network” of “turnaround” schools this fall, the state education department announced Friday. A turnaround is a low-performing school that’s undergoing an overhaul.
Commissioner Stefan Pryor invited applications from school districts in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, and Norwich. The schools that will apply rank in the bottom 10 percent of the state on test scores.
By applying, schools propose to undergo dramatic restructuring in exchange for up to $2 million in state aid over three years.
New Haven has put one school in the running: High School in the Community, which was founded over four decades ago as a teacher-run experiment. The district on Wednesday revealed plans to turn over management to the teachers union, freeing up teachers to rewrite curricula and rethink what it means to complete the 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade—read more about that here.
Pryor plans to decide “later in the summer” which of the four districts’ schools will be chosen as turnarounds in the fall.