Over the past 20 years, hundreds of schools -- and a few school districts -- have shown us that we can achieve dramatic progress if we take a different approach. We can give underprivileged kids the kind of education that puts them on a completely different trajectory. But transformational change for students can't be imposed from outside. It flourishes only in places where principals have personally embraced a mission of high achievement and can build teams that are aligned, that allocate their budgets, and do what it takes to realize their vision.

When you walk into New Orleans' Charter Science and Math Academy, known as Sci Academy, it's clear that teachers and principals are not preoccupied with rules and regulations. Instead, everyone is intently focused on the mission of ensuring that their kids get to and through college. Reaching that goal has required rigorous coursework, an intense culture of character-building, and an all-out effort by teachers who routinely work 12 hours a day, six days a week, and take calls from students until 9:30 every night. The high school is just four years old, but it's already posting some of the highest test scores in the district, even though most of its students start out reading at a fourth grade level or below.

Sci's success depended in no small part on its setting in a city that frees schools from the usual web of constraints. Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was run like many other school districts. Teachers were centrally hired and assigned. Principals did not have control over their schools' budgets, the length of the school day, what curriculum was used, or how classroom time was spent. Teachers who wanted to go above and beyond traditional expectations in pursuit of student impact found their creativity stifled and their initiatives discouraged by administrations who did things by the book to comply with mandates.

Then the traditional structures and rules that had stymied reform were figuratively and literally swept away by Hurricane Katrina. As the city rebuilt, local leaders used the clean slate to turn around the failing school district. Their ambitious reform agenda began by decentralizing power from the school board and central office to principals and charter school boards.

Principals were told they would no longer be evaluated on process, just results (which would be measured by factors like student achievement, attendance, and dropout rates). They were given broad authority and flexibility to meet that goal with control over their budgets and staffs, so they could hire -- and fire -- who they want, and compensate them competitively. The Recovery School District replaced bureaucracy with individual accountability -- principals know they will have to answer for their students' success or failure. But more importantly, they're energized that their job description has changed from checking off boxes to ensuring students are learning.