Long Beach has tried many vehicles to get there. It requires all students from kindergarten to eighth grade to wear uniforms. It demands that any third-grader reading below grade level attend summer school. Eighth-graders who receive more than one F must attend a preparatory school for a year before entering high school. The school day has been extended.
Financial incentives draw the better teachers to difficult assignments.
Coaches aid young teachers. Alternative schools separate those who regularly misbehave from those eager to learn. Things haven't always turned out as planned. Neither has the district tried whatever it could, willy-nilly, in hope of finding something that works. Cohn insists on accountability.