This is bull. I worked for years to earn a transfer to my neighborhood school. I would resent being sent to another school with its requisite daily commute just to satisfy yet another social experiment.
The first and most important prerequisite to educational success for a student is his desire to learn. With that lacking, no teacher can create miracles, no matter how talented and qualified.
I would add an equallly important prerequisite. In 1964 or thereabouts, James Coleman reported on things like educational success being improved by integration and other social engineering devices. His report, based on massive research , returned the conclusion that success and failure depended on "the home".
As accurate as his study was, it was consigned to the dustbin of the world of education because it was not, in the words of out time, politically correct. Nevertheless, as a NYC teacher in Catholic and NYC public schools for 30 years I say without hesitation Colemn was and is RIGHT!!!