Here is some encouraging data on the education reform front, by way of our friends at Scripps-Howard News Service:

Locke High School in the Watts area of Los Angeles is one of the worst schools in California: low-performing, high dropout rate, gang-plagued. If any school cried out for drastic reforms, it's Locke.

At  the risk of gross over-generalization, U.S. public education is good for little nowadays except teaching to standardized tests and enforcing silly rules and regulations.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings -- an influential and meddlesome cabinet official about whom Americans know surprisingly little -- announced yesterday that the federal government would require states to use the same formula to calculate high school dropout rates.

An honor student gets busted for possession of a controlled substance: candy. Another student is suspended for wearing a gun to school. On his t-shirt. Zero-tolerance strikes again.