A School Makeover in Mapleton

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Even so, one school—called Expeditionary Learning—has already failed to take root.

The key problem is that enrollment never rose to sufficient levels, possibly because another school—MESA—was using a similar approach. "We decided we just couldn't support two similar schools," says Ciancio. So now the old EL school is morphing into Global Leadership, a school that's based on the International School of the Americas in San Antonio, which emphasizes international studies.

RAISING EXPECTATIONS.

Teacher burnout is another danger. Many of the new models place added burdens on teachers, because they stress creative, project-based learning. In turn, that means teachers must help think up new projects, instead of just teaching from a textbook. "Biology is not precooked here," says Dominie Dew, who teaches biology at Welby New Tech. "We just started teaching biology (this year), so I have to develop my own projects." Because Welby is so small, Dew has also been asked to teach geometry. "I’m not used to teaching geometry," she admits, "And it's challenging."

Ultimately, how well choice works will hinge on Mapleton's success in raising student achievement. To do that, it must transform traditional expectations about what students will achieve. "Mapleton has a long history of providing options for kids that aren't academically challenging," says Kevin Welner, an education professor at the University of Colorado who's evaluating Mapleton. "But now they're saying that all of the small schools are going to be college-prep."

Still, there are already signs that Mapleton's approach is saving some kids. Take Victor Barron, 17, who was expelled from Denver's Manual High for fighting during his freshman year. After Denver refused to take him back, Victor took the bus up to Mapleton, which let him sign up for its new Big Picture school, starting in the fall of 2004. "This was my last chance," says Victor, both of whose parents dropped out of high school. "I like this school so much better than Manual. Everyone knows each other, and there are no fights." At Big Picture, Victor has done an internship at an animal hospital, and now dreams of attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins to study veterinary medicine.

There are good reasons to hope that Mapleton’s revolution will eventually produce a lot more stories like Victor’s, and raise overall district performance. Leadership is critical, and Ciancio is both tireless and capable of motivating her team. She’s also won strong backing from both the school board and the local business community. Best of all, she’s realized that she can’t wait until students reach high school. That’s why this fall, Mapleton is revamping its K-8 system of schools as well, with the aim of not just giving parents more choice—but also raising standards in the critical, early grades.

All of this change has already raised hopes around Mapleton. "This is a big step in the right direction," says Linda Wolfe, a Mapleton resident whose grandson is now attending Welby. Wolfe explains that of her four children, only one got a high school degree. "The other three fell through the cracks, and dropped out." Wolfe doesn's believe that kind of failure rate is acceptable anymore. "It's about time they did something like this," she says. And along with many residents, she's convinced that choice will produce better results.

Symonds is BusinessWeek's Boston bureau chief .