Passage 2

Soon after starting his job as superintendent of the Memphis, Tenn., public schools, KrinerCash ordered an assessment of his new district′s 104,000 students. The findings were depressing:nearly a third had been held back at least one academic year. The high school graduation rate hadfallen to 67%. One in five dropped out. But what most concerned him was that the number ofstudents considered "highly mobile", meaning they had moved at least once during the school year,had ballooned to 34,000, partly because of the home-foreclosure crisis. At least 1,500 students werehomeless--probably more. "I had a whole array of students who were angry, depressed, not gettingthe rest they needed," Cash says. It led him to consider an unusual proposition: What if the best wayto help kids in impoverished urban neighborhoods is to get them out

Cash is now calling for Memphis to create a residential school for 300 to 400 kids whoseparents are in financial distress, with a live-in faculty rivaling those of elite New England prepschools. IfCash′s dream becomes a reality, it will probably look a lot like SEED, a charter school inSoutheast Washington, which stands for Schools for Educational Evolution and Development. Its320 students--seventh-to 12th-graders--should live on campus five days a week. They are expectedto adhere to a strict dress code and keep their room tidy. There are computers in the dorm′scommon areas, and each student in grades 10 and above is given a desktop computer. At 11:30 everynight, it′s lights out.

In his plan for Memphis, Cash wants even more time. Perhaps the most provocative aspect ofhis proposal is to focus on students in grades 3 through 5 for homelessness is growing sharply amongkids at that critical age, when much of their educational foundation is set, Cash says. His aim: toprevent illiteracy and clear other learning roadblocks early, so the problem "won′t migrate intomiddle and high school". Students will remain on campus year-round. The school would cost up to$ 50,000 a day to operate--three times the cost of a traditional day school with more than twice asmany students. "It sounds very exciting, but the devil is in the details," says Ellen Bassuk, presidentof the National Center on Family Homelessness in Newton, Mass.

What is the passage mainly about

• A.What concerned Cash most about the homeless kids
• B.The benefit of building residential schools
• C.How to help homeless children in poor areas
• D.Building public residential schools for kids