In New Jersey Schools, Reform Keeps to Its Own Schedule

By Caroline Hendrie

Elizabeth, N.J.

George Washington Elementary School, a brick behemoth that covers the better part of a block in this city's hard-pressed seaport neighborhood, has narrow slits for windows that lend it the air of a fortress under siege. And for many of the educators inside, that's just about how they feel.

"We're implementing so many new things at once," lamented Arleen Paige, a basic-skills teacher who chairs the building's 13-member school management team. "It's a lot to ask the teachers to digest."

Spurred on by the city's reform-minded superintendent, George Washington Elementary volunteered for the first wave of a statewide plan to engage hundreds of city schools in...