A decade ago, the school board decided to close three struggling middle schools in predominantly black West Charlotte and send their students to eight new K-8s. In an effort to sell the plan, supporters pointed to research on the benefits of the K-8 configuration. The new model, they argued, could raise achievement at the poorly performing West Charlotte schools. Denise Watts, who was a top administrator for the district at the time and now works for UVA advising districts on school reform, believes the board picked the West Charlotte schools for a K-8 experiment over others on its initial lis...