Of the five states that the center has studied in depth - Georgia, Michigan, California, Ohio and Maryland - only Georgia appears to be making progress in improving the worst schools, Jennings said. In that state, failing schools in the middle of restructuring are forced to follow a state curriculum. Educators go into the schools on a weekly basis to monitor them and see that teachers are following the state curriculum. The technique has worked and the number of failing schools has been declining, according to Jennings.
Grasmick is working on creating a statewide center that would provide technical assistance to schools as they try to improve. "If people knew what to do [to fix schools] they would do it. I truly believe that. But they don't know what to do," she said.
In fact, there isn't a clear formula. "We have done a statistical analysis, and there is no one thing that guarantees success," Jennings said. "It shows that we are at the beginning of understanding what to do."
