The Long Haul

For the past 10 years, teachers in schools around Denver have been receiving in-depth training—the kind reformers say should be standard for all teachers. The effort is paying dividends for teachers, students, and entire schools.

Englewood, Colo.

As Ellin Keene lugs a battered canvas tote bag into Cottonwood Creek Elementary School on a frigid winter morning, she meets up with Don Biery, who seems wound tighter than a spring despite the early hour.

"My kids have mutinied," the 5th-grade teacher tells Keene bluntly. "They hate questioning. They say it's stupid, that it ruins the book, that it makes them forget what they're reading."

Biery blames himself for the trouble his students are having in using a new technique for increasing reading comprehension. Keene offers the teacher, who is heading off to a before-school meeting, some soothing words and reassurance that the students' rebellion might actually...