RE: Question 1: Attracting and Retaining Teachers

Here is a radical idea to help reduce the attracting/retention 
problelm:  Create teams of highly respected, highly paid, 
expert teachers who, along with a top-notch administrator, 
can go into any school on a temporary basis to tackle the 
challenges at the school and model effective strategies.  
This "A Team" would not be called upon to teach AP 
classes, but the most difficult "remedial" classes.  Thus, 
prestige is attached to working with the lowest students.  
These teams would stay just long enough to get the 
momentum going and then they move on to another site.