Compromise Set on Improving Cleveland Schools

Plan calls for taking over struggling schools

Cleveland's mayor, who controls the city's 44,000-student school district, and the local teachers' union have reached a compromise on an improvement plan that would allow the district to intervene directly in low-performing schools and develop a new salary scale for teachers that takes student performance into account. At the same time, the plan would protect collective bargaining and prevent teachers from being laid off just because they are based at low-performing schools.

But a sticking point remains: Mayor Frank G. Jackson, a Democrat, would like to see Cleveland share school revenue raised through tax increases with top-performing charter schools within the district's boundaries. State lawmakers would need to pass legislation to allow Cleveland that power.

"This agreement is far from perfect," David Quolke, the president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement after the compromise was reached earlier this month. "There is give and take, but because it holds the promise of helping students in Cleveland succeed and it protects the voice teachers have in building a quality education system, it is an agreement we support and hopefully will be able...