The Six Months of Learning and Listening

I think we put together a plan which highlighted both the strengths of the district, and I think in some ways Lawrence had been unfairly maligned about a lot of things. And so we set out a plan which sought to address those kind of three areas. We let go about 50 percent of our principals, bringing in good people that could take personal ownership over their buildings. For the last few years, over 2,000 kids have given up their February vacation to get extra tutoring with our best teachers through what we call the Acceleration Academies. In April, another 2,000 children gave up their vacations because we're preaching that hard work matters.