They should have watched the documentary "Waiting For Superman" which talks about schools that defy the odds and produce good outcomes for the their students in places where the schools in general are a total failure. It used to be on Netflix streaming but looks like it is only available via DVD now.
The proposals mentioned in the article (replacing regular public schools with charter schools, performance-related pay for teachers, a new "transformational" superintendent) are similar to the policies proposed in Waiting For Superman. The success of those policies, however, is pretty questionable, and this case may be another reason to be sceptical (see Diane Ravitch's criticism of Waiting For Superman here: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-ch... )
Well I'd say their first problem is that they didn't actually _implement_ any of the ideas they just spent 100 million on over paid consultants (one of the cited problems in the documentary) and didn't change a single thing. Waiting for superman talks specifically about the epidemic corruption in Newark's school system.
They should have watched the documentary "Waiting For Superman" which talks about schools that defy the odds and produce good outcomes for the their students in places where the schools in general are a total failure. It used to be on Netflix streaming but looks like it is only available via DVD now.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/185389
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_%22Superman%22