With the goal of developing leaders who could turn around low-performing schools in the Southwest, the Southwest Comprehensive Center at WestEd (now West Comprehensive Center at WestEd) partnered with the University of Virginia’s School Turnaround Specialist Program (UVA-STSP). The initial cohort of schools and districts that participated made remarkable gains. One district in particular stood out: Utah’s Ogden School District.

Based primarily on interviews and on documents and data from the district, this paper describes Ogden’s initial success in implementing strategies advocated by the UVA-STSP program. The paper, a case study, is designed for use in exploring some of the complexities of developing leadership for school turnaround.