Chicago isn't waiting for Superman

Former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett in 1987 famously declared Chicago public schools to be the “worst in the nation,” and exhorted parents to consider private schools. It would take “a man or woman of steel,” he added, to clean up the city’s system.

Well, Mr. Secretary, take note: Chicago recently announced a record-high graduation rate, jumping 4 percentage points for the second year in a row to reach 69.4 percent. It didn’t happen because of a man or woman of steel. Rather, it happened because of a steely focus on what research told school leaders would matter most: keeping freshmen on track to graduate by improving their attendance and preventing course failure in ninth grade...