The plan centered around a new curriculum. In 1989, Union City's schools had gotten so bad the state was threatening to take over the district. Faced with losing everything, administrators decided to try a radical new curriculum. Whole-language learning emphasizes research, replaces textbooks with the actual novels and essays they're culled from, and breaks down rigid roles for students and teachers in favor of cooperative student groups. In this arrangement, the teacher is like a coach or a guide for students' own exploration.
Classes are also longer and more interdisciplinary.
Even the classroom itself is different, with group tables replacing desks. Although the district didn't know it, the last piece of the whole-language puzzle was Project Explore. We knew that the computers by themselves couldn't do anything without the teachers. Within the first year, it was clear that the project was a huge success. And it showed the rest of the district the advantages that networking and multimedia could bring to their curriculum.