As recently as 2008, Locke High School in Los Angeles was one of the nation’s worst failing schools: For every student who graduated, four others dropped out. Now, two years after a charter school group took over, gang violence is sharply down, fewer students are dropping out, and test scores have inched upward. Progress, however, is coming at a considerable cost: an estimated $15 million over the planned four-year turnaround, largely financed by private foundations. That is more than twice the $6 million in U.S. federal turnaround money that the Department of Education has set as a cap for any single school, and keptics say the Locke experience may be too costly to replicate.Source: The New York Times