We've all heard the bad news: Our public schools are in a sorry state. In surveys of 30 developed nations, American high school students ranked 24th in math and 17th in science. Meanwhile, our dropout rates are at a near-crisis level, with more than a quarter of students failing to graduate. And the recession has inflicted more damage, forcing layoffs among teachers, larger class sizes and cutbacks in important programs.

Happily, however, thousands of bold and resourceful educators are brimming with innovative strategies to lift the performance of American schools and give students new opportunities to learn. With a panel of experts, we chose 10 public schools across the country -- some regular district schools, some charter schools (subsidized by public funds but not operated by local school districts) and some magnet schools -- that exemplify what American education is doing right.

Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion Elementary School - Boston, Massachusetts

Grades K-5

Meeting the needs of special-education students is a constant challenge for educators.Henderson Inclusion has been pursuing a surprisingly simple -- and highly successful -- strategy for more than two decades: It places students who have physical, mental and emotional disabilities in classrooms alongside their normally developing peers. The school is a pioneer of the educational philosophy known as inclusion -- the belief that all children, disabled and nondisabled alike, benefit from being taught together.

In the hallways at Henderson, where a third of the school's 230 students have some sort of disability, wheelchairs and "pedestrians" vie for space. Two-teacher teams -- one of whom has special-ed training -- provide individual instruction. To parents this approach is a win-win: "Both teachers are hands-on with all the kids," says Kathleen Mahoney, whose 9-year-old and 6-year-old twins attend Henderson. "So 25 kids get two teachers full-time. And my children don't see any differences between themselves and a child with a disability." Further proof of success: the school's long waiting list and its recent designation as a "high performer" in language arts.

Irvington High School - Fremont, California

Grades 9-12

Recycling and conservation are now standard at many schools, but Irvington High has upped the ante. Every classroom at this 2,100-student school has compact fluorescent lightbulbs operated by motion sensor, and at night computers and vending machines power down automatically. Solar panels on the front lawn collect energy, which is tracked on a school website. Last year a junior won a hybrid bus for the school district after he wrote a prize-winning essay about Irvington's energy-saving campaign. Next up? Cutting down on the school's paper use.

Environmentalists -- and the district's budget office -- are delighted by this activism, which has resulted in a 33 percent drop in electricity use and more than $16,000 in savings annually. But the green momentum is just one aspect of the school's yearlong Change Project, which requires students to find new ways to serve the community. "We want our kids to be creative," says principal Pete Murchison. "Figuring out how to do something new is the essence of learning." Irvington High is clearly on the right track. Its many honors include being named a national Blue Ribbon school (an award for academic excellence given by the Department of Education).

Kipp Dream Prep - Houston, Texas

Grades pre-K-3

The disparity in standardized test scores between disadvantaged minority children and their white middle-class counterparts is a source of endless frustration for educators, who have made closing the "achievement gap" an urgent priority. To the rescue: the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), a nationwide network of charter schools that offer a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum to students who would otherwise be relegated to substandard neighborhood schools. At KIPP Dream Prep, where 98 percent of the students qualify for lunch subsidies, the challenge begins at age 3. Even the kindergarten classrooms are labeled with pictures of college mascots to get kids used to the idea that college is in their future.

For the school's 700 students the day is jam-packed. It begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. Staff regularly visit families at home to persuade parents to sign contracts promising to help with homework, read to their kids nightly and volunteer at the school. "We need everyone involved in the life of the child to be on board," says principal Olive Moore, who points proudly to the fact that 90 percent of KIPP students go on to graduate from college -- a sharp contrast to the high dropout rates that prevail at the kids' local schools.

Brooklyn Generation - Brooklyn, New York

Grades 9-12

"When good teachers have more time with smaller classes, students achieve," proclaims the website for the Generation Schools Network, whose pilot project is the Brooklyn Generation School. That view is crucial to the group's central mission: to turn around failing urban schools. At Brooklyn Generation, a high school housed in one such school (South Shore High), the school day has been structured to enable teachers to do better jobs. Enrollment in core classes is capped at 16, allowing for more one-on-one instruction. And the academic year is 200 days instead of the standard 180 -- without increasing teachers' hours. Instead of the customary summer off, teachers get two-month breaks while students participate in career seminars that include visits to potential employers.

Teachers love the outside-the-box approach to their profession. "Teaching can be really isolating and frustrating," says math teacher Dianne Crewe-Shaw. "But here, everyone wants to collaborate." As for student achievement? In 2007-2008, its first year, Brooklyn Generation ranked in the top five of 40 comparable schools in attendance, credit accumulation and pass rates on New York State's Regents exams -- and first in standardized test scores.

Mast Academy - Miami, Florida

Grades 9-12

The teenagers who attend MAST (Maritime and Science Technology) Academy aren't afraid to get their feet wet: A hallmark of the marine-themed high school -- located just yards from Biscayne Bay -- is hands-on experience with the environment. Students regularly explore the water, take samples and analyze whatever washes up on shore. Course offerings include classes on solar energy, engineering and scuba diving, and MAST is home to the nation's only Coast Guard JROTC program.

But students don't need to be aspiring oceanographers or marine biologists to attend MAST. "Our students are driven and they have a wide range of ambitions," says principal Thomas C. Fisher II. "High-quality education is what we're really about." And Fisher has the statistics to back up his claim: Fully 100 percent of MAST's graduates enroll in a four-year college, and students' SAT scores average more than 200 points above the national norm. Unsurprisingly, this record of academic excellence has made the magnet school a top choice for students throughout Miami: This year 1,900 applicants competed for 126 spots in the freshman class. Qualified candidates were then chosen by lottery.

The Odyssey School - Denver, Colorado

Grades K-8

Who says kids need a classroom to learn? At the aptly named Odyssey School, some of the best lessons occur far from school buildings. This charter school is a proponent of "expeditionary learning," a philosophy based on the ideas of Kurt Hahn, founder of the outdoor-education organization Outward Bound. One example: When studying the effect of the 19th-century Gold Rush on American Indian tribes, Odyssey sixth graders took an overnight field trip to a Ute reservation. "It was a perfect blending of adventure and content," says the school's director, Marcia Fulton. Other classes have studied at campsites, on hiking trails and in Colorado's rocky canyons.

But Odyssey's adventures in learning involve more than just the great outdoors. Last year, for instance, a group of younger students doing a unit on body systems visited a local blood bank and heard cardiologists talk about their work. "Essentially, our community is the basis for our learning," explains Fulton. This hands-on approach has won the school not only academic kudos, including recognition by the state as a "School of Distinction," but also off-the-charts popularity: More than 300 students are on this year's waiting list.

The Seed School - Washington, D.C.

Grades 6-12

A sad truth about education is that the worst public schools tend to be in areas where the need is greatest. Such is the case in southeast Washington, D.C., which is why competition to get into the SEED School there is so fierce. For starters, SEED (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) is a boarding school: Its 320 students, who are all chosen by lottery, live on the four-acre campus from Sunday night to Friday afternoon, returning to their homes on weekends. In addition, the school requires uniforms and enforces a strict routine: clubs after school, then dinner, study hall and bedtime.

This rigorous program opens up some extraordinary opportunities for students. In his six years at SEED, for example, senior Davanté Sanders joined movie and robotics clubs, took screenwriting classes at nearby American University, held an internship at a local company and participated in a Greek scholars program, visiting Greece for two weeks. Like 95 percent of SEED graduates, Sanders is headed to college: This fall he's enrolling at the prestigious University of Southern California -- a remarkable achievement for a young man from a city where far too many of his peers do not even graduate from high school.

Minnesota New Country School - Henderson, Minnesota

Grades 6-12

Walk into Minnesota New Country School and you won't see hallways or classrooms, just a single 8,500-square-foot atrium. Nor will you find a principal or hear bells. A recipe for chaos? Not here. At this faculty-run cooperative of 109 students and seven "advisers" (the preferred term for teachers), the emphasis is on independent learning, with students creating the curriculum and choosing the advisers who will guide them on personal projects. The day begins with large-group discussions of the news and expectations for the week. Then kids disperse to work at their own pace, sometimes spending hours in the computer corner, woodworking shop or art studio. Only math classes are communal, taught in groups of about 15. A 45-minute period each day is set aside for reading.

The rural school, which opened in 1994, is the flagship for EdVisions, a nonprofit promoting self-directed learning. This model has now been replicated in more than 50 locations. MNCS, which the Department of Education has lauded for its success in closing the achievement gap, has attracted an almost fanatical following among Minnesota families, with some students traveling as far as 100 miles a day, round-trip, to attend.

Science Leadership Academy - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Grades 9-12

In many American schools it's now customary for students to use computers. But at Science Leadership Academy, one laptop per child is only a start. As a joint initiative of the School District of Philadelphia and the Franklin Institute (a premier science museum), this magnet school uses few print textbooks, preferring instead that students create their own resources with course management software and a "learning by doing" method called inquiry. Class periods are longer than in most schools and science courses include more lab time. "Kids here learn from the work they do, not from what comes out of a teacher's mouth," principal Chris Lehmann says. Consider how Spanish teacher Melanie Manuel guided an analysis of films depicting conflicts in South America: Her students identified on-screen human-rights violations and then compiled their findings on a school website.

SLA draws top students from all over the city (nearly half from families in poverty), who undergo a stringent admission process. Virtually all of the school's 120 seniors enroll in college, and SLA has won high praise from a host of educational experts and observers, including recent visitor Bill Gates.

Clark Montessori Junior & Senior High School - Cincinnati, Ohio

Grades 7-12

Since 1907, when Maria Montessori launched her first school, in Rome, her namesake philosophy has revolved around a simple principle: Natural curiosity drives kids to learn. Today an estimated 4,000 Montessori schools operate in the United States. Clark is the first public junior high and high school to embrace this model, which encourages children to follow their interests and work on their own. Yet collaboration is also key at Clark: Each year all 659 students sign a contract promising to work together to build the school community -- as well as the community outside the school. Students are not only encouraged but required to perform 200 hours of community service in order to graduate.

Virtually all of Clark's graduates go on to college -- many on scholarship. School founder Marta Donahoe attributes this success to the relationships students forge with teachers and to the Montessori mission: "Our program is designed to open young people's minds," she says.