Against All Odds

By Daniel Gursky

OXFORD, N.C.--Every day, Michael Ward wears a button that says "BAU," overlaid with a red slash, the universal symbol for "no."

The button means "No more business as usual" an apt description of public education here in rural Granville County, where Mr. Ward serves as the superintendent of schools.

This school year, the district showed the tenacity of its commitment to Mr. Ward's slogan. Its teachers, bucking the prevailing sentiment of their colleagues throughout the state, voted overwhelmingly last September to stick with a district plan that bases extra pay for school employees on meeting individual and...