Why Turnaround

By studying the impact of adversity on the developing brain, Turnaround is on to something big.

Today, 51% of children in public schools live in low-income households, the highest percentage since the National Center for Education Statistics began tracking this figure. That translates into 47,000 schools in the U.S. that have a majority of students growing up in poverty or close to it. Many of these schools are stuck in persistent underperformance because they have not been designed or equipped to address the impact of adversity on the developing brain.

There is growing demand to connect the dots between poverty, adversity, stress and academic performance. People want to understand the connection and what they can do to help.

Translating Science into Tools and Strategies

Turnaround translates the science that explains the impact of stress on learning into tools and strategies for students and schools. These strategies aim to stabilize the learning environment, reduce stress and increase engagement in learning. They make it possible for schools to personalize learning by helping children develop the social, emotional and cognitive skills and mindsets they will need for success in school and in life.

Turnaround for Children has applied science to disaggregating, explaining and organizing the research on too often ignored critical mindsets and skills and more importantly, applied how each can be used to unlock the potential of individual students and whole schools.

– Jim Shelton, Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education