The National
Commission on Excellence in Education warned in 1983 that America was "a
nation at risk" because of the deteriorating quality of its public education.
Chelsea was certainly a city at risk. Northeast of Boston, across the harbor
and the Mystic River, Chelsea had once been a thriving suburb with one of the
finest school systems in the country. By the 1980s, however, Chelsea had developed
overwhelming fiscal problems. Many wage earners had moved to suburbs farther
from Boston. Chelsea had little business or industry within its compact 1.8
square miles, a situation aggravated by a disastrous fire in 1973, an aging
housing stock, and a declining population. Further diminished by national and
state government cuts in funding, the tax base that supported schools and other
government services was too small to support the city's essential services.
The average annual income was 44% below the state average. The official count
of Chelsea's population in 1989 was 28,000, but this number masked the presence
of approximately 5,000 unreported immigrants and their school-age children.
In some ways, Chelsea was the victim of poor urban planning.
The Tobin Bridge, erected in 1950, cut through and above the center of Chelsea,
and it came to symbolize the problems of the city. The endless trail of exhaust
fumes polluted the air, and lead-paint chips rained from the bridge. The bridge
was the route of travel from Boston to the more affluent suburbs, and thousands
of commuters literally drove over and ignored Chelsea every day. 
The schools of Chelsea, built at the turn of the century, were a prime example
of institutionalized neglect. Because the city was unable to pay competitive
salaries, many teachers left for other communities. The leadership of the schools
also suffered, and politics often influenced educational decisions. The curriculum
was unfocused, the instructional materials were outdated, and the system could
not afford the teaching of many important subjects. The children of Chelsea
suffered from an impoverished school system.
More than 50% of students entering the Chelsea schools lacked an adequate background in the English language. In 1988-89, only a quarter of high school students took the Scholastic Achievement Tests, and they did not distinguish themselves. Only a fifth of high-school graduates planned to attend a four-year college. A quarter of the teenage girls were pregnant or already mothers. Fifty-two percent of those who entered the high school did not graduate. As one School Committee member observed: "We scored highest in all the areas you want to score low in, and lowest in the areas you want to score high in." By the 1980s, the school system of the City of Chelsea was in desperate need of comprehensive educational reform.
In 1988, Andrew Quigley, a member of the Chelsea School Committee, and John Brennan, Mayor of Chelsea, asked Dr. John Silber, then President of Boston University, if the University would help the Chelsea school system. Dr. Silber agreed to consider the idea, and ordered a detailed study of the Chelsea schools. The data collected in this report surprised no one. The recommendation in the report was, however, unprecedented. The changes deemed necessary were so extensive that they could be achieved only if the School Committee delegated the management of the schools for a ten-year period to a team of highly qualified, experienced educators, administrators, health care providers, and financial managers who could work in partnership with Chelsea colleagues to reform the schools.
Dr. Silber accepted the diagnosis, and spoke plainly about the cure. Expenditures for education, he said, are "investments in educational capital . . . the moral and intellectual capital of the nation." This capital, the youth of Chelsea, was at risk. A visionary educator, he presented his ideas concerning the comprehensive nature of education in the proposal presented to the Chelsea School Committee entitled A Model for Excellence in Urban Education. Boston University representatives worked with community leaders, politicians, and educators to develop a mutually acceptable plan.