In The Achievable Dream: College Board Lessons on Creating Great Schools, Gaston Caperton* and Richard Whitmire highlight successful urban school districts and the reforms they implemented.  In the book’s conclusion, they write,

Consider Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.  When Paul [sic] Gorman arrived as superintendent in 2006, he concluded that changing the “cycle of failure” in his struggling schools took more than a terrific principal; it required a team.  Thus was born the “strategic staffing” initiative, in which principals who had proven they had the talent to turn around schools got to select five teachers who had proven the same. (p. 220)

On Monday, USA Today published an op-ed by Whitmire.  He declared that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) was “shoulders above their [urban district] counterparts.”

 

*Warning: Graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill