PHILADELPHIA -- The pupils at John Moffet School are rising above the abandoned and boarded-up buildings of the old textile district.

Albanian, Arabic, Asian, black and Latino, they live in Kensington, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Many are learning English as a second language.

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Yet pupil achievement at the K-5 school is on the rise, one of many signs of progress in a school district that's been making a comeback since a state takeover in December 2001.

"I would say, what a difference four-plus years make," said James E. Nevels, chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission.

Under pressure to right the finances and improve pupil performance, school directors hired a nontraditional leader who implemented a new curriculum, enhanced professional development, closed bad schools, increased the district's use of K-8 schools and launched a project to improve high schools.

Before this became the story of Pittsburgh Public Schools, it was the story of the School District of Philadelphia. The larger district has shown that improvement is possible, if traumatic and slow, using some of the same strategies that have been proposed for Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia's overall test scores have been up five years in a row. The gap between white students and Asian and black students has narrowed. Attendance and graduation rates are up, while school violence is down, the district said.

"Schools are more, definitely more, adequately staffed than a few years ago, when we were in the depths of a real teacher hiring crisis," said Paul Socolar, editor of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a quarterly newspaper. The faculty is more qualified, and vacancies are down, he said.

During three years as principal of Moffet, Andrea Kirwin helped to loosen poverty's choke hold on achievement.

In 2002, 16.4 percent of Moffet's fifth-graders scored proficient or advanced on the state reading and math tests. By last year, the percentages had increased to 63.2 percent in reading and 81.6 percent in math.

Mrs. Kirwin had no vice principal, preferring to divert administrative money to teachers. She said she handled all discipline problems herself to keep teachers focused on class work. She said she opened the doors to student teachers and volunteers to increase pupils' opportunities for one-on-one help.

She ventured into the neighborhood and knocked on doors to find truants. "They need to be here," said Mrs. Kirwin, who, after the past year, was named a turnaround specialist and assigned to Sheridan West Academy, a struggling school with grades five through eight.

Paul Vallas, school district chief executive officer, said he'd seen improvements across student groups.

"Everyone's up, and everyone's up substantially," he said.

"The white kids are up. The African-American kids. The Asians. The Latino kids. The ESL kids," he said, referring to those learning English as a second language. "The special-ed kids. The low-income kids."

Long road ahead

Yet Philadelphia, with about 200,000 pupils and 270 schools, has a long road ahead. Overall scores remain low, compared with state averages, and some worry that the district's momentum will slip for various reasons.

"One is the money," said Eva Gold, a principal with Research for Action, a nonprofit education group.

The district has spent all but $50 million of a $300 million bond issue floated in May 2002 to rebound from near-bankruptcy and fund educational improvements, such as smaller class sizes and extra programs. While Mr. Vallas said he had stabilized the district's finances, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers blasted the district's current budget for "deep cuts" in personnel and programs that threaten progress.

Though its problems aren't as severe as Philadelphia's, Pittsburgh, with 31,000 pupils and 65 schools, also has a difficult road.

Pittsburgh Superintendent Mark Roosevelt has said a state takeover is possible because of three years of low test scores and financial instability, including a $40 million deficit projected for next year. The notion frightens some Pittsburghers, and Mr. Roosevelt's critics have accused him of exaggerating the danger to get his way with the school board.

Philadelphia's experience has shown that a takeover isn't about faceless bureaucrats and bean counters running the school district from afar. It isn't about business as usual, either.

Mayor John Street named two members to the School Reform Commission, and then-Gov. Mark S. Schweiker named three, including Mr. Nevels, chairman of a West Chester investment firm who had served on the state board of control for the troubled Chester-Upland School District in Delaware County.

Chart: School District Of Philadelphia, 2002-2006 PSSA results

The commission embarked on what the district calls the "most sweeping school reform initiative in America."

It brought in three private companies, two nonprofit groups and two universities to manage 45 failing schools; turned four schools into charter schools; turned over 21 schools to the district's new Office of Restructured Schools; and gave extra money to those schools and 16 others that were troubled but making progress before the takeover.

Moffet wasn't among those 86 schools. Troubled as it was at the time, it was doing better than many.

Lynn Spampinato, Pittsburgh's deputy superintendent for assessment, instruction and accountability, was an executive in the Philadelphia district at the time of the takeover and helped to design the plan for outside managers. Later, she worked as a regional director and superintendent for Victory Schools Inc., a company given management of five schools.

The School Reform Commission hired Mr. Vallas, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, budget director for the city of Chicago and policy adviser to the Illinois Senate, in July 2002.

Mr. Vallas infused money into other schools. He expanded early-childhood, after-school, summer-school and alternative education programs; implemented a curriculum to standardize teaching from school to school and to align instruction with state tests; and phased out middle schools in the belief that K-8 schools would better promote discipline and achievement.

He targeted the recruitment, retention and training of teachers, established an "academy of leadership" for principals and began a school renovation campaign. He lowered class sizes, increased class time in reading and math, expanded Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs and offered SAT preparation.

While improving test scores, Mr. Socolar said, the changes led to a "narrowing of the curriculum, less art and music, at some schools," took some flexibility from teachers and squeezed some of the joy out of learning. The teachers union has complained that money spent on management companies could be better spent internally, though Mr. Vallas, like Mr. Roosevelt, nonetheless has established good rapport with union leadership.

"We kind of hit it off immediately," union President Ted Kirsch said.

Missed federal standards

Of the 86 schools initially earmarked for extra money, new management or both, 25 met federal performance standards last year under the No Child Left Behind Act. The district itself did not meet federal standards, however, because overall test scores were too low.

"Some schools have done better. Some schools have done worse," said Shelly D. Yanoff, executive director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, an advocacy group.

The combined percentage of Philadelphia's fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders scoring proficient or advanced on the state math test increased from 18.3 in 2001 to 37.1 last year. During the same period, the percentage proficient or advanced in reading increased from 23.5 to 35.4.

Preliminary districtwide scores for the past year also show progress. Mr. Vallas was so pleased with the data that he released it late last month, about a month before the state plans to release information on any district.

The Pittsburgh district didn't meet federal performance standards last year, either, but it had better scores than Philadelphia.

For example, about 46 percent of Pittsburgh's fifth-graders scored proficient or advanced in reading last year, compared with 35 percent in Philadelphia, while nearly 56 percent of Pittsburgh fifth-graders scored proficient or advanced in math, compared with 45.4 percent in Philadelphia.

By comparison, 64.2 percent of the state's fifth-graders scored proficient or advanced in reading last year, and 69 percent did so in math.

Roosevelt comes in

The Pittsburgh school board launched a course for change last August when it hired Mr. Roosevelt, a former Massachusetts legislator with no experience running a school district.

Mr. Roosevelt hasn't brought in outside managers, but he closed 22 schools that were under-used, low performing or both, a move he said would save $10.3 million a year and concentrate students in better schools.

Mr. Roosevelt made a modest expansion of early-childhood programs, doubled the number of K-8 schools from 10 to 20 and brought in Kaplan K12 Learning Services, also used in Philadelphia, to write an $8.4 million standardized curriculum for grades six through 12. He cut 88 central-office positions and sent another 100 central-office employees into schools as academic coaches.

He's considering a new alternative school and has established committees to study gifted education and high school improvement. Mr. Vallas will open five high schools this year featuring smaller-than-traditional enrollments and partnerships with Microsoft, the National Constitution Center and other parties.

Philadelphia has a timetable for academic growth called the Declaration of Education. Mr. Roosevelt has an Excellence for All plan, which sets deadlines for improved test scores, a narrowing of the racial achievement gap, and equitable distribution of money and other resources across the district.

Mr. Roosevelt likes to tell his school board that no urban district in the country has made significant progress without stability and a unified front. He routinely is criticized by two directors, and the board has a long tradition of infighting and micromanagement.

Mr. Nevels said School Reform Commission members generally get along with each other and Mr. Vallas and resist the temptation to get involved in day-to-day affairs. To maintain momentum, the commission plans to extend Mr. Vallas' five-year contract, which expires next summer.

But more has to be done to sustain the progress and public support for Philadelphia's initiatives, observers said.

Noting 11th-grade test scores have been difficult to raise, Ms. Gold said Mr. Vallas had to do more with high schools. Ms. Yanoff called for a more open decision-making process and more public input.

The politics of change were lost on the Moffet pupils who ran up to Mrs. Kirwin for hugs while she was showing a visitor around last spring. But they knew what they liked in their principal, a nurturing spirit that officials in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh say they need more of to turn their systems around.

"All of us, all of us, in all urban areas, need to work to raise student achievement, and we have to work toward equity, and we have to work to address the needs of all children," Dr. Spampinato said.