Accords Designed to Turn Around Troubled Schools

The school district in Anne Arundel County, Md. , this spring entered into what appears to be a unique contract with the local teachers’ union over struggling Annapolis High School: Teachers will work year-round and make a commitment to stay at the school for three years.

Designed by Superintendent Kevin Maxwell to fend off a state takeover, the plan requires all 193 staff members to reapply for their jobs, a strategy he has described as “zero-basing.”

The contract appears to be the first in the nation to focus on a single school and to require such sweeping changes. But it is the latest in a string of agreements designed by districts and unions to turn around failing schools as they struggle...