Learning To Care

By Linda Jacobson

Chapel Hill, N.C.

Six years ago, when Anna Mercer-McLean became the director of a small child-care center serving poor families here, most of the teachers in the program had no more than a high school education.Fifty percent of the teachers were leaving every year. And the children, many with special needs, were unmanageable.

"We had children bouncing off the walls because the teachers here didn't have the skills and abilities to work...