In 1989, Union City Public Schools faced state-regulated total reorganization. Only about 30 percent of students in the poor, predominantly Hispanic New Jersey school district were passing state tests for minimal academic competency.

That year the district began an ongoing reform effort that won recognition from the state and eventually from the nation.

"I want the rest of the country to know about it," said President Clinton in a 1996 visit, "and I want everybody in the country to be able to emulate it."