After years of skyrocketing test scores, a school in Charleston, S.C., is the subject of a fraud investigation.

An elaborate $80 million system that was supposed to be ready in September has been unavailable, and 21 principals have turned to a program created at a Brooklyn high school to track progress.

Nearly a year after New York City’s first report cards for public schools were issued, the majority of the principals who ran the 52 schools labeled as failing remain in place.

The Bloomberg administration is asking elementary school principals across New York City to give standardized tests in English and math to children as young as kindergarten.

Hurricane Katrina wiped out the New Orleans public schools. It also created a rare chance to build a system that might solve the biggest problem in urban education -- how to teach disadvantaged children.

Rising test scores highlight a year of ambitious change at the beleaguered Newton Street School in Newark.

For the second year in a row, a vast majority of New York City parents, teachers and students who responded to a Department of Education survey said they were satisfied with their schools.

At the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice in Brooklyn, many in the first graduating class of 79 seniors are from the city’s poorest neighborhoods, and nearly all are collegebound.

A principal is trying to reach out to immigrant parents, who often are 0n the sidelines in an era of hovering parent.

The bonuses range from $5,500 to $15,000 for principals and from $2,750 to $7,500 for assistant principals.