Schools That Think

But it wasn't until Shalvey joined forces with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reed Hastings, 39, a leader in the drive to pass the new charter-school legislation in 1998, that he realized that if one charter school could promote change, then a whole system of charter schools could leverage it. With $1 million in startup money from Hastings -- a sum matched by the New Schools Venture Fund last fall -- the two men officially launched University Public Schools in 1999. The goal: to create a system of 110 elementary, middle, and high schools throughout California over the next 10 to 15 years. From the beginning, says Shalvey, the intent was to develop scalable models and to share all of the lessons learned along the way. Other for-profit charter schools were not as forthcoming. "We felt that none of the existing charter schools in California had as their purpose the intent to create replicable models," says Shalvey.

With a staff of eight full-time educators, UPS opened one small school in Modesto last year, and this year it plans to open another one in Oakland and two more in San Joaquin County. But its real focus has been on the campus in Stockton, a 350-student showcase for education reform, in particular in demonstrating the idea that education can and should be a service industry.

"Traditional schools operate on an old-fashioned factory model," says COO Gloria Lee, 29, who left McKinsey & Co., in San Francisco, last year, taking a 40% pay cut to work with UPS. But education is really a service business, where each child is highly individualized. "It's more like strategy consulting," says Lee, who has a master's degree in education and an MBA.

What makes the UPS model so successful? What creates all of the satisfied parent-customers? It's the teachers. Recruit the best teachers you can possibly find. Treat them as professionals, experts in their fields who don't have to be told what to do in a classroom. And reward them. Link pay raises to performance -- their own and their students'.

"Good teachers are the key to everything," says Elise Darwish, 34, the organization's chief education officer. "You can do everything in the world with infrastructure, but if you don't have good teachers, kids aren't going to learn."

At UPS, teachers' raises in pay are based on merit; they are tied to meeting team goals as well as individual goals and are measured in student achievement. Teachers are encouraged to plan standards-based thematic units together and to share knowledge with one another. They have the freedom to develop their own curriculum, and they are involved in every aspect of school administration, including hiring other teachers.

It's an unprecedented amount of freedom for teachers who, in traditional public schools, often complain that they're given neither creative leeway in the classroom nor input into their school's decision-making process. On the other hand, UPS does not offer tenure: The job security that many public-school teachers take for granted simply doesn't exist at UPS. Teachers sign one-year contracts.

But tenure aside, teachers have shown an overwhelming interest in joining the faculty. In fact, for each of the 18 positions available at the Stockton school, 20 people applied. Teachers are so eager to work there some of those who were hired willingly make a daily commute of nearly four hours to come to work.

"We're all willing to take a risk. That's why we're here," says fourth/fifth-grade teacher Gina Solari, 33, who is also lead teacher for the school's four fourth/fifth-grade teachers. "I believed in that when I came here, that I would be part of something big -- a big idea."

And that's precisely the idea. "The basic principle at this school is that a rising tide lifts all boats," says Lee of University Public Schools. "Our hope is that existing public schools will look at us as an example to follow and ask, 'How can we learn from them, so that we, too, can better serve our children and their families?' We're trying to build a system of charter schools that has the ability to empower good people so that they can make a difference."

The Expedition School

Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning, Denver, Colorado
Executive director: Rob Stein
Grades: K-12
Number of students: 315
Founded: 1993
Mission: To apply Outward Bound's principles of expeditionary learning -- real-life experiences, challenging personal goals, and individual support -- to the field of education.

Okay, time for a pop quiz. The subject: World War II. Think hard. When was Pearl Harbor bombed?

What happened on D day?

Who was Robert Oppenheimer?

Come on! You must have spent a couple of weeks on the subject at some point in school. You probably can come up with the right answers: December 7, 1941; the Allied forces invaded western Europe; the man in charge of developing the atomic bomb.