Turn around a failing school, or start a new one? Yes.
In 2005, Shoemaker Middle School in tough west Philadelphia was a place the police knew too well. Its violence rate was staggering: 8 assaults for every 100 students, including attacks on teachers and a police officer. So, when a pair of beat cops strolled by in the fall of 2006 and found the school silent, they tried the doors, figuring it must have suddenly been closed. But the school hadn’t closed. It […] Read more