Next steps for failing schools.

About 1,750 schools nationwide--including up to a third of the Chicago Public Schools system--are being tagged for restructuring, a process under No Child Left Behind that kicks in when schools do not meet math and reading targets for five years in a row.

Under restructuring, schools have five options:

1. Reopen as a charter school;

2. Replace all or most staff;

3. Turn operations over to a private organization with a good record;

4. Turn operations over to the state;

5. Choose any other major restructuring that will reform the school.

The last option is the most popular, notes Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, which has studied restructuring in Michigan and California.

"I think the reason educators are skeptical about the other options is that if you abolish a school, it's very hard to start a new school and you can't be sure of what you're going to get," says Jennings.

In Michigan, a state that is about two years ahead in reporting, 85 percent of 133 schools under restructuring improved to meet Adequate Yearly Progress in one year, according to the Center on Education Policy. Twenty percent of schools came off the list entirely by meeting AYP for two consecutive years.

Concern still exists about the last restructuring option. "If a few teachers get replaced or the curriculum is slightly changed, it's same old same old," says Michael Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which supports national education reform. As NCLB's final consequence, restructuring may not be stringent enough, notes Petrilli. "If it turns out that the 'or else' [of NCLB] isn't anything to worry about, then it puts the whole project at risk," he says.

The number of schools in restructuring will grow as more states get five years of reporting under their belts. Schools in California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania account for almost 70 percent of schools ordered to restructure, according to the Associated Press.

What will happen to schools that continue to fall short? "We're going to give them time to implement," says Chad Colby, a U.S. Department of Education spokesman.