New Arrangements: Reforming Philadelphia's High Schools From Within

By Ann Bradley

PHILADELPHIA--At 9:15 on a crisp, sunny fall morning, lines of students spill out the doors of Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia, a formidable Gothic-style building with castle-like battlements.

As the latecomers receive passes that will admit them to class, they file into the cavernous hallway of the school, built in 1927 in what has since become one of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

At one time, Gratz was considered one of the worst of the district's 22 neighborhood high schools. But that sad distinction meant that Gratz differed from the other schools only in...