By Sam Dillon, New York Times, September 27, 2010

BROCKTON, Mass. — A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure. Teachers and administrators often voiced the unofficial school motto in hallway chitchat: students have a right to fail if they want. And many of them did — only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?src=mv