Schools reformed: Major changes designed to lift the struggling schools' performance

This from Antoinette Konz at The Courier-Journal:

Students and teachers at two of Jefferson County's most troubled middle schools will find themselves at the heart of a major transformation when they return to class next week.

More than two-thirds of the teachers at Southern Leadership Academy and Iroquois Middle School will be new. Class sizes will drop by at least 10 students. New computers will be in nearly every classroom.

And the site-based decision-making councils will be disbanded, with the principals answering directly to Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman.

The changes -- made in response to a scathing state audit that found the schools plagued by rapid teacher turnover, poor instruction, weak oversight, inconsistent reforms and disruptive classrooms -- will cost the district nearly $1.7 million, officials say.

But in the hallways of the two schools, where failure has been commonplace for several years, the focus is not on cost, but on hopes of a better future...