Mastery Charter 'Restarts' Philadelphia's Struggling Smedley Public School

On the first day of school last fall at Smedley Elementary in Philadelphia, Principal Brian McLaughlin assembled students in the sweltering cafeteria and pointed to a picture of a giant eraser projected onto a screen. "I want you to think of all the things from last year that you may not have liked," McLaughlin said. "We're going to erase those right now." At a school as troubled as Smedley, erasing the past isn't easy. Last year, more kids got suspended -- one in five -- than scored proficient on the state reading exam. An independent review found instruction sorely lacking. But this year, ...

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