Marla Blakney’s fifth-grade classroom is the front line in the nation’s largest experiment in privately run public schools. And on a muggy fall morning in Room 308 at Harrity Elementary School, the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. It is a cheesy B-movie, an iconic X-Files episode, and possibly the best-known World War II legend alongside the Nazi Gold Train.

Schoolkids aren’t the only ones in Philadelphia praying for a good report card this month. Last fall, with most of the city’s students testing well below state averages in reading and math, ...