Strategies for Fixing Failing Public Schools

F inding a glint of silver in the dark cloud that is urban education is becoming somewhat easier. Many districts are reporting rises in standardized-test scores. Some are requiring their schools to adopt a break-the-mold-model as part of a whole-school reform strategy. And in virtually every big-city district, some of the boldest and most promising reform experiments are underway.

Still, every big city district has too many low-performing, persistently failing schools. And while one failing school is too many, in some districts, they constitute a majority.

Functioning largely as custodial institutions, they are usually found in the poorest neighborhoods, where children are mostly black and Hispanic or immigrants who are not proficient in English. Often, but not always, they look like failing schools from the outside-seedy, unwelcoming, graffiti-covered. For the students, getting to and from such schools is...