In January and February 2018, the Center on School Turnaround at WestEd hosted two online Thought Leadership Forums for state education agency (SEA) officials.

The forums are intended to build the capacity of SEAs and regional comprehensive centers to support rapid school improvement. Forums are developed in pairs, with each pair focused on a key issue related to supporting school turnaround.

This brief summarizes the information presented in the January and February 2018 forums, which explored the transformative uses of turnaround leader competencies for supporting existing principals and as a basis for identifying, recruiting, and developing new leaders to serve in complex and challenging settings.

Recommendations for SEAs on how to support and develop turnaround leaders and a list of useful resources are included.