Broad Coalition Aims to Turn Around W.Va. District

As a member of West Virginia’s state board of education, Gayle Manchin was appalled in 2008 to learn that the state had been in control of the McDowell County schools for nearly a decade, with little to show for its efforts.

That feeling stuck with Ms. Manchin, who at the time was also West Virginia’s first lady, and inspired her resolve to figure out a better plan for the 3,500 rural public school students in the state’s southernmost county.

The result: Reconnecting McDowell , an ambitious, five-year partnership of more than 80 public and private groups that aims to turn around one of the state’s...