Good teachers, he says, can produce greater gains for high- and low-achieving students alike.

That requirement allows educators and parents to identify low-achieving students even in schools whose overall test scores look impressive.

Schools deemed failing several years in a row must offer tutoring to low-achieving students and, eventually, can be forced into complete reorganization.

Under a 1965 Federal law, public school systems are given funding to provide special remedial services to low-achieving poor students, including those who attend religious institutions.

It turned out that schools in this district had inflated their test scores by preventing low-achieving students from taking the tests.

Much of the increase was intended to help low-achieving students.

A 1965 Federal law requires public school systems to provide remedial help for low-achieving poor students, including those who attend religious schools.

Its mission is to prepare low-achieving and economically disadvantaged students, especially Latinos, to attend a four-year college.

Moreover, he said, while the theory holds that magnet schools will inspire all schools to become better, the improvements do not help low-achieving students.

Yet what incentives do suburban districts have to accept low-achieving students from inner cities?