Unhappy with low test scores and an alarming dropout rate at the district's high schools, Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt last fall dispatched teams of administrators and volunteers to check out stories of success around the country.

In Dallas, they visited schools with highly regarded Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs. In Boston, they visited schools geared to the health professions, business and law. In Charlotte, N.C., they inspected innovative vocational programs.

Mr. Roosevelt's task force on "high school reform" will present some of its findings at a school board Education Committee meeting tomorrow, offering a first glimpse at what may be the most sweeping change Mr. Roosevelt yet envisions for the academically and financially troubled district.

If he follows the trend in other parts of the country, Mr. Roosevelt will propose breaking some of Pittsburgh's 10 high schools into smaller schools or creating semi-autonomous "learning communities" within existing high schools -- steps to create more personal learning environments. Enrollment at small high schools often is capped at 300 to 500 students.

Some districts have given small schools and learning communities theme-oriented curriculums to let students pursue special interests, and established partnerships with businesses, universities and nonprofit groups to introduce children to higher education and the work force. The luckiest districts have financed restructuring with millions of dollars committed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Districts also have experimented with block scheduling, hands-on learning, extended school days, catchup courses for lagging students, performance pay for teachers and integrated instruction -- for example, teaching multiple subjects around an issue such as the Renaissance.

"The traditional American high school is really an anachronism. It was designed 100 years ago and really hasn't changed much since," said Naomi Housman, director of the National High School Alliance.

As a result, she said, many schools aren't preparing students for today's world or holding students' interest on a daily basis.

"They want to be engaged," Ms. Housman said. "They're just not finding it in the traditional high school."

The high school malaise has had a ripple effect, with colleges finding freshmen unprepared and businesses having a difficult time recruiting skilled employees. That's why colleges and businesses have supported high school improvement in some cities.

"From the partner's point of view, it's a survival strategy," said Corinne Herlihy, research associate with the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., or MDRC, a social policy think tank.

Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust, said high school improvements for years took a backseat to elementary school restructuring. But the desired "trickle-up" effect -- the idea that good habits established in primary years would pay dividends in high school -- didn't materialize.

Mr. Roosevelt has called high school improvement the year's top priority.

The district's scores on the state math test are poorest, and the racial achievement gap widest, at the high school level. Rand Corp. last year estimated that 35 percent of city students, including nearly half of all black males, drop out of high school. Other students, dissatisfied with academics and environment, opt for charter or suburban schools.

District Chief of Staff Lisa Fischetti said board members tomorrow will hear about lessons the task force has learned and how that information will shape a plan, to be unveiled in the spring, for improving city schools.

While some districts have remade high schools on a piecemeal basis, she said, Pittsburgh's effort will be system-wide change that builds on current "pockets of excellence."

To design an improvement plan, Mr. Roosevelt has blended academic scrutiny and marketing savvy. He surveyed the Pittsburgh district's students and parents for ideas. Members of his 23-person task force visited two dozen schools in six states and Washington, D.C.

"We liked the theme-based schools," said Janis Ripper, the principal assigned to coordinate the task force.

Ms. Ripper said team members observed enthusiastic instruction and innovative ideas, such as "academies" -- one example of a small learning community -- to isolate ninth-graders from upperclassmen in a building. But cold data on achievement gains were elusive.

"Some of the schools had some data," she said. "But one thing to keep in mind with high school reform: Because it is so new, a lot of schools were in the process of a two- or three-year plan. Data wasn't as available as we'd like."

Paul Vallas, chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia, said he's pleased with a continuing overhaul there that's increased the number of high schools from about 50 to 80.

He said the district with 180,000 students, more than six times Pittsburgh's enrollment, has moved toward smaller schools with college preparatory curriculums, signature programs and dual enrollment arrangements that allow students to take college classes. Nineteen of the high schools are charter schools. In all, 30 district and charter high schools met federal performance standards last year.

"I like to say we've gone from failure to adequacy. Now, the key is to get to excellence," said Mr. Vallas, who's faced some of the same academic and financial problems as Mr. Roosevelt.

No matter their neighborhoods, Mr. Vallas said, Philadelphia students have a choice of at least three high schools. Some of the district's newer schools include the Science Leadership Academy, operated with the Franklin Institute; the High School of the Future, a venture with Microsoft Corp; and Constitution High School, a partnership with the National Constitution Center.

But intimate learning environments and theme-oriented curriculums aren't enough to promote achievement, educators say.

Joseph Harris, interim director of the National High School Center, said high school classrooms traditionally have had the teacher responsible for instruction and the student for learning. He said teachers -- through differentiated instruction, projects or other means -- must make sure they're getting through to students.

Ann Clark, regional superintendent for high schools in North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District, said officials there noticed an "over-arching lack of student engagement." Besides moving toward smaller, themed schools, she said, the district offers signing bonuses of as much as $15,000 to build elite teacher corps at four low-performing high schools.

"That's sizable. That's getting close to a new car," said Ms. Clark, noting teachers at those schools also can earn 15 percent performance bonuses in monthly paychecks but risk termination for not pulling their weight.