See this new report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education.

Eight years of New York City’s public school reforms have significantly but incrementally improved students’ performance and graduation rates. In order to bring about more dramatic progress, the district created a ‘radical’ new initiative through which schools fundamentally change their structures and employ cutting-edge technologies to support student needs.

Launched in 2010, the Innovation Zone—iZone for short—is an ambitious program that expects to produce upwards of 100 schools in the next three years. The iZone schools are being asked to “reinvent” themselves by fully individualizing student learning in order to achieve student mastery of subject material, not just “basic skill proficiency.”

Based on interviews and school visits in New York City, the report looks at the goals and challenges of the iZone initiative.