School’s Troubles Take Fordham by Surprise

W.E.B. DuBois Academy has gotten plenty of accolades.

It was labeled a “School of Promise” by the Ohio Department of Education. The governor highlighted the school during a visit last year. It even earned a plug in the U.S. Senate during National Charter Schools Week in 2005.

And then there was the front-page story in The Cincinnati Enquirer in July 2005 featuring the school’s founder and leader, Wilson H. Willard, and describing his plans to expand that fall. Mr. Willard was described as a “role model for charter schools” by Terry Ryan, the vice president for Ohio programs and policy at the...