A fair school improvement process—one that is sympathetic and respectful of the challenges students and staff in low-performing schools must face each day—is more likely to be accepted. Arbitrary and imposed solutions are not likely to succeed. Neither are those that are experimental or those that have failed to produce results in many other settings. Therefore, an emphasis must be placed on selecting research-based programs and approaches that have a successful track record.

Indicators of Low-Performing Schools
The initial identification of low-performing schools should be made using criteria that are fair and widely accepted.

School Audit Process
The use of fair indicators is just the beginning of a sound school improvement process. School systems must not only identify which schools are in trouble, but also why. Once schools have been identified, it is important to investigate to determine the origins of the school's problems, which, in turn, can help to suggest the most appropriate and effective solutions.

Selecting an Improvement Program
Since it is largely up to school staff to make the great efforts necessary to turn the school around, they should have a major voice in selecting the research-based solutions to be implemented. By guaranteeing that staff play a formal role in program selection, the school also benefits from their expertise as educators and provides them with a greater stake in making the program work.

Building on the Best: Learning from What Works
While each low-performing school has a somewhat different set of needs and priorities, the AFT believes that no school—especially one that is already foundering—should be expected to find success by reinventing the wheel. Instead, once the school's most pressing problems have been identified, the improvement process should focus on enabling the faculty to choose among those programs and instructional practices that have a solid base of research showing positive results. The AFT's What Works series was designed to provide members with detailed background information about the research-based strategies that, when properly implemented, show promise for helping to raise academic achievement, especially for struggling students.

• Five Promising Discipline and Violence Prevention Programs
• Six Promising Schoolwide Reform Programs
• Seven Promising Reading and English Language Arts Programs
• Five Promising Remedial Reading Intervention Programs
• Improving Low-Performing High Schools: Ideas & Promising Programs for High Schools

The Importance of Staff 'Buy-in' in the Selection of Proven Programs
Researchers, program developers, policy analysts, and educators have all noted that a program's success depends upon the commitment of teachers and other school staff to the program prior to its implementation.