Kent Farnsworth, a longtime educator, decided last year that changes needed to be made in the way American children are educated.

“During a trip to Helena, Ark., I stopped at a charter school, Delta College Prep, that is doing extraordinary work with some of the most economically challenged students in the country,” Farnsworth said. “As I was driving back to St. Louis, I kept thinking, why can’t any school district do the same thing, even if it isn’t a charter school – and then (I) realized it could.”

Farnsworth recently retired as the Mary Ann Lee Endowed Professor for Community College Leadership Studies in the College of Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He has published a new book, “Grassroots School Reform: A Community Guide to Developing Globally Competitive Students.” It argues that significant school reform in the United States will not happen if left to national or state policy makers, but must be a community-led initiative.