Cincinnati Eyes Top-to-Bottom Restructuring

By Caroline Hendrie

Fed up with an academic scorecard that even its superintendent describes as pitiful, the Cincinnati public school system has set out to rebuild itself from the ground up.

Under a far-reaching plan that experts say is unusual and even unique, the 50,000-student district wants to rip up its organizational blueprint and replace it with one that officials hope will bring quick and lasting improvement.

"We're not a Cadillac that just needs a little fine-tuning," said Superintendent J. Michael Brandt. "If we only tweaked around the edges, we'd be sitting here five years from now and the results...