But, ultimately, for the school to succeed it has to improve academically.
Her granddaughter has access to a computer lab, and has improved academically, she said.
In addition to hiring Coach Turner Gill to awaken a flagging football program, Manuel helped Buffalo's athletes improve academically.
The 3,500-student 3,500-student School has been striving in recent years to improve academically but still has far to go.
Once they were in the program, she said, their behavior seemed to change and they tended to improve academically.
Like Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. Newman urged far wider use of state financial incentives for school systems that concentrate on teaching students to think and reason independently and, probably, hopefully, improve academically.
Mr. Thompson also said that he disagreed with Mr. Giuliani's proposal to replace across-the-board salary increases for teachers with merit raises, which would be limited to teachers whose students improve academically over the course of a school year.
During her time there, almost all of the city's 23 elementary schools improved academically, but middle school scores were mostly stagnant and the teachers' union gave her a vote of no confidence.
The students improved academically for the simple reason that they were able to concentrate on what was being taught, without their attention being swept away by conflicts and anxieties.
As it builds a new system, Chicago Public Schools is also looking to the Chicago Teacher Advancement Program, a pilot project that awards bonuses to teachers whose students improve academically, as well as Fresh Start, another experimental program that features intensive peer review and mentoring for struggling teachers.
Seven schools in Norfolk are to get help from experts in an attempt to help them improve academically.
