Meet the Met, A School Success Story

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Its 700 students, up from 50 in the late 1990s, now represent nearly 10% of Providence's high school population. The record has made it a darling of the Rhode Island business community, which has eagerly helped Met students find internships. "We need to teach kids to be problem solvers, rather just memorize facts, and that is what The Met does," gushes former CVS CEO Stanley Goldstein.

Expanding beyond the original school, though, has been a bigger challenge. To flourish, the 36 cloned Mets need a strong leader, talented teachers, and a supportive political environment. Some haven't found that, and are struggling with low test scores, high turnover, and even battles with authorities to stay open. One factor may be the scarcity of leaders like Littky, whom everyone calls "Doc." He’s a larger-than-life presence in Providence with an innate sense of how to reach even the toughest kids. In turn, his magnetism has attracted an extraordinary staff of talented people like Levine, who has a PhD in clinical psychology, and Samantha Broun, an energetic Harvard University grad who runs the Met's program for helping its graduates make the transition to college. "For our philosophy to work, you need good people," says Littky. "Where we struggle is where we haven't found the right people." Students at such schools still go on internships, but they aren't going deep enough on the projects. So they don't learn as much, says Littky, and are less likely to become passionate about learning—Littky's real dream for each student.

SLOWER PACE.

An even bigger hurdle has been winning political support for such an unconventional school. In Rhode Island, McWalters actually has modeled some state requirements on the Met’s approach. But the political environment is radically different in many other states, like Colorado, which remains focused on kids' scores on the state test, known as CSAP. And that's created trouble for Big Picture's first high school in Denver, known as Skyland Community High. Like the Met, Skyland has managed to engage most kids, and all of its first small class of graduates have been accepted at college. But because students' scores on CSAP have been low, Skyland has come under intense fire from the Denver School Board, which debated closing the school earlier this year. Although Skyland's charter has been renewed, it will be on a very tight leash. "We would love to have a school as successful as The Met, but we don't have that yet," says Brad Jupp, senior academic policy adviser with the Denver Public Schools. If the school doesn't improve, it will likely be closed.

To be sure, Big Picture also has had some real success stories, like its school in Oakland, where all the seniors are graduating this year and have been accepted in college. The Met's model is also taking root in Detroit, where there will be four such high schools this fall, operating as charters—meaning they use public funds, but operate free of most district rules. By late next year, there should be a network of 54 Big Pictures.

Even so, Littky and Washor no longer dream of creating hundreds or thousands of Mets around the country. "I compare it to Ben and Jerry's; They were opening schools at a pace that exceeded their grasp, and so losing control," says Joseph McDonald, associate dean at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, who has studied Big Picture's rollout. Still, the Met has hit on a formula that can work, even if it’s not yet clear how broadly.

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Symonds is BusinessWeek's Boston bureau chief .