The schoolhouse is sunlit.
Classrooms are spacious.
Ceilings are high. A soft spring breeze whispers through the tall windows of the brick two-story, built 50 years ago in the North Side neighborhood of Clintonville. This is one of only two Columbus public schools where more than half of the fourth-graders are passing state proficiency exams. Here, and at Winterset on the Northwest Side, school officials boast that urban education succeeds. At most of the 86 other elementaries in the district, performance becomes a race to avoid rock bottom.