City dropouts target of grant

With many high school dropouts saying they left school because they felt unchallenged in the classroom, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday gave $21 million to the Chicago Public Schools system to establish a more rigorous curriculum in city high schools.

Initially, 14 high schools will be targeted for a new core curriculum. Each school will be given a small menu of curriculum options to choose from, in the hope of shaping classroom instruction along more specific and consistent subject lines in English, math and science throughout the system...