The first-period English class is held in a science lab because the room across the hall smells like mildew and lacks adequate air conditioning. When Missouri education officials took over the troubled Normandy School District last summer, they vowed to help its 3,600 students become more college- and career-ready. About a quarter of the enrollment had already left for better schools under the controversial Missouri school transfer law, extracting millions of dollars from Normandy in the form of tuition payments to more affluent districts. [...] state education officials promised a new dawn in the district, with new leaders, better faculty and an unprecedented degree of attention from their department in Jefferson City. Electives such as business classes and personal finance were no longer offered. Demetris Drummer, the AP English instructor, re-entered the classroom to see whether students had questions about the worksheet. After a few weeks, Hensley and his classmates marched down to Principal Derrick Mitchell's office and demanded that an instructor teach them. The students come from a patchwork of 24 tiny municipalities in north St.