In 2010, the Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School in Roxbury was named as one of a dozen “turnaround” schools in Boston. On almost every scale —test performance, teaching quality, and school culture — it counted as one of the poorest performing schools in Boston at the time.

The “turnaround” designation gave the school’s newly appointed principal exceptional managerial power, which he used to dismiss 80 percent of the teachers. The “turnaround” label also attracted the attention of education reformers across the nation, keen to prove their theories and flush with money to do so.