More evidence of the impact even one successful school (in this case, the KIPP Ujima Village Academy) can have on the debate about how to reform a city's schools.  This is a nice editorial in the Baltimore Sun:

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Model middle schools

Originally published June 13, 2006, Baltimore Sun editorial

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.middle13jun13,0,1218846.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines

 

Baltimore's school system is taking some major steps to reform its middle schools, the glaring weak link in overall school improvement plans. There are some strong reform models, particularly among charter schools, but systemwide changes are not happening quickly enough. If achievement gains being made in elementary schools are to be sustained and if more students are to graduate from high schools with the necessary skills to pursue college or work, then middle schools must be tackled with a greater sense of urgency.

One model that would seem to merit wider replication, as documented by The Sun's Liz Bowie, is the four-year-old KIPP Ujima Village Academy in West Baltimore, one of 46 schools around the country that are part of the Knowledge is Power Program. Baltimore's KIPP school serves 275 fifth- through eighth-graders, about one-third the size of Calverton, a traditional West Baltimore public middle school that serves 750 students...