N.J. Schools Put Reform To the Test

By Caroline Hendrie

When the New Jersey Supreme Court handed down a ruling last spring requiring hundreds of urban schools to implement wholesale, schoolwide change by no later than next year, heads turned in the nation's education community.

Never had a court written--or a state been required to fill--a prescription for "whole school" reform of anything approaching that magnitude. In essence, the court was mandating a process from on high that by all accounts relies heavily on the commitment of those at the bottom.

Now, nearly a year later, it's still too soon to say whether New Jersey's...