James Campbell was a school on the wrong side of Pearl Harbour, plagued by hoodlums, and high failure and drop-out rates. Now it is oversubscribed, the graduation rate has jumped and the best pupils are breaking United States records for performance in maths and verbal tests. Its success is founded on creating joint ventures with colleges, companies and the local community to pull in extra resources and specialist knowledge from the outside world and enrich learning. James Campbell's pupils have swapped textbooks for robotics guided by military personnel, fish farming funded by local developers and television programme-making made possible by a local TV company. Teachers spend a quarter of their day sharpening their skills, while an education master's programme draws high-quality recruits. James Campbell's experience suggests that schools of the future will not rely solely on government-provided resources. They will find innovative ways to tap the rich seam of social capital in the community around them.
