Arizona's urban schools are implementing changes in their education policies that are radical by national standards, incorporating an aggressive use of student evaluations to pinpoint weak spots in teaching and a laser focus on students meeting English and math benchmarks. It's too soon to tell whether the Hispanic students in Phoenix's evaluation-heavy schools will have a better shot at college than minority students in other places. For schools that have used data evaluations for several years, early indications are that the approach is working. Principals say that their schools' scores are going up and that their teachers are better prepared to address problem areas and hard-to-reach students.
