At State's Urging, Mississippi Schools Use Reform Model

Jackson, MIss.

In a forgotten corner of Mississippi’s state capital, test scores are going up at a middle school for struggling students, thanks to a program imported with the state’s guidance.

The Morrison Academic Advancement Center, housed in an old elementary school, saw considerable gains in just one year. The progress for the 7th and 8th graders—all of whom were considered at risk of dropping out—stems from the adoption of the America’s Choice model of whole-school reform, says Principal Sherry Sterling.

State officials turned to America’s Choice, developed seven years ago by the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington research group, as a way to help dozens of schools that had failed to make adequate academic progress under the No...