Introduction : rethinking strategies to improve urban school systems / Kenneth K. Wong and Stacey A. Rutledge -- State-level education reform : putting all the pieces together / Robert K. Yin and Darnella Davis -- Organizational alignment within the Department of Defense Dependents Schools : a course for high academic achievement? / Claire E. Smrekar and Pearl Sims -- Implementing supplemental educational services : implications for school districts and educational opportunity / Gail L. Sunderman and James S. Kim -- Lessons learned from a longitudinal assessment of the new American schools scale-up phases during the 1990s / Mark Berends, Susan Bodilly, and Sheila Nataraj Kirby -- Integrated governance in Trenton public schools (NJ) : coordinated efforts to raise performance in high schools / Kenneth K. Wong, Jenifer Blaxall Buice, and Kyle R. Cole -- What makes small learning communities work : toward standards for practice / Diana Oxley -- When technology supports teachers' work : implementation of Houston's teacher tools online initiative -- Betsy Broyles Breier, Jacqueline Hawkins, Donald R. McAdams and Kenneth K. Wong -- District policy as an uncertain catalyst for school change : school sanctioning in urban high schools / Dorothea Anagnostopoulos and Stacey A. Rutledge -- District initiatives to improve curriculum and instruction : views of administrators on Houston's teacher tools online initiative / Kenneth K. Wong, Betsy Broyles Breier, Jacqueline Hawkins, Donald R. McAdams and Stacey A. Rutledge -- Developing district-intermediary partnerships to promote Instructional improvement : early experiences and lessons about the institute for learning / Julie A. Marsh, Kerri A. Kerr, Gina Schuyler Ikemoto, and Hilary Darilek -- Peer coaching as a strategy to build instructional capacity in low performing schools / Kenneth K. Wong and Anna Nicotera