A school reform experiment in Houston, Texas, could serve as a model for other schools in inner cities.

• When Thaddeus Lott took over as principal at Mabel B. Wesley Elementary in 1975, only 18 percent of its third graders were scoring at or above grade level on standardized reading tests.

• Lott cleaned up the school -- which is located in an impoverished area -- hired a professional and well-trained staff, and imposed a policy of zero tolerance for misbehavior.

• He directed his teachers to use "direct instruction" -- a technique in which teachers and students engage in a lively, back-and-forth regimen of structured drills and sequential lessons.

• "Whole language" teaching methods were thrown out the window in favor of phonics-based reading lessons during which teachers must ask 200 to 300 questions per day -- often in rapid-fire order.

By breaking down students' beginning- and end-of-year test scores by classroom, Lott knows which teachers are succeeding. He rewards results with promotions and bonuses.

By 1980, the proportion of third-graders reading at or above grade level had soared to 85 percent. As of 1996, 100 percent passed the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills in reading -- compared to fewer than 70 percent of third-graders statewide in schools with similar demographics.

In 1995, the Houston school district granted Lott's request to manage three additional neighboring schools as a separate district of charter schools. After three years, the performance of fourth graders in reading and math at one school went from a failure rate of more than 60 percent to a pass rate of 100 percent in reading and 94 percent in math.

Another of the three schools registered a similar improvement, although progress has been slower at the third school.

Four states -- Florida, Texas, Kentucky and Ohio -- are adopting Lott's methods.