Reports about how schools that were once execrable have been transformed always make headlines. They provide hope at a time when despair prevails about the future of public education in this country. The latest example is an op-ed that details the metamorphosis of schools in Union City, N.J. ("The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools," The New York Times, Feb. 10).

According to David L. Kirp, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, what transpired in a poor community where three-fourths of students live in Spanish-speaking homes provides a model for nationwide reform. Kirp describes the strategies that resulted in a high school graduation rate of 89.5 percent, which is about 10 percentage points greater than the national average. If that were not impressive enough, 75 percent enroll in college, with the best students earning scholarships to the Ivies. As a result, U.S. News & World Report and the American Institutes for Research ranked Union City High School in the top 22 percent.

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