This book is about deep change. In a series of research reports and
commentaries, it mainly features case studies of powerful reform for the
most part in local districts and in individual schools. They are set
within the constraints of obvious political realities, essentially the
recently legislated and bureaucratically enforced dimensions of
high-stakes accountability. In this book, educational practice does not
flow only from theory; neither does theory evolve only from educational
practice. Rather, practice and theory fruitfully interact, not just some
of the time, but most of the time. These accounts of deep change,
moreover, are written gracefully, in understandable prose, and largely
absent the barnacles of breathless advocacy. To be sure, the accounts
are uneven, not as a function of their quality which uncommonly is high,
but as a function of their foci and perceived attractiveness