In the spring of 2007, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana made the first call. Gov. Kathleen Blanco made the next call. And Louisiana's state superintendent of schools, Paul Pastorek, made the final pitch. The trio wanted to know if Paul Vallas, the renowned CEO of the School District of Philadelphia, would make a move to New Orleans to oversee the most troubled campuses in the state and arguably in the nation. Hurricane Katrina had ravaged Louisiana, and the low-lying Crescent City in particular, two years earlier. The school district, the state's lowest-performing, still was in shambles, with not enough buildings or teachers or any clear plan to boost student achievement. "My initial response was that I was very interested in coming and helping," says Vallas, who felt compelled to assist almost immediately after the hurricane hit the morning of Aug. 29, 2005. Before Katrina, the public schools in New Orleans regularly were criticized as among the worst in the nation. Today, Vallas is leading a turnaround. Scores on the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program have increased each year under his watch.