Effective leadership is critical to successful school turnaround efforts. Yet, district leaders have historically been hesitant to hold leaders accountable for bold change efforts. As federal and state dollars flow to districts and individual schools charged with embarking upon transformative change efforts, districts must adopt a laser-sharp focus on assessing turnaround leaders' performance on an accelerated timeline. The students enrolled in schools identified for targeted turnaround efforts have no time to lose. This brief presents the rationale supporting aggressive turnaround leader assessment efforts and outlines seven critical actions steps to increase the success rate of turnaround efforts.