Baltimore Tries the "Hired Gun" Approach

Schools thrive under imported principals Baltimore Sun (via EducationNews.org) "If principals are the key to making schools better, why not take some exemplary leaders in good suburban schools, offer them $125,000 salaries and see if they can turn around failing Baltimore schools?"

That is, assuming you can get them -- and assuming they're not already making that much or more. And that they can handle an urban school.

In NYC, for example, the Chancellor's big effort to get out of town talent seems to have fallen flat. There's a similar effort in VA, where top principals are recruited as "turnaround specialists" and pulled into struggling schools -- to mixed results. (I posted about this a few weeks ago here: Tough Times for Principal-Based Turnaround Efforts.