Discusses how schools can exceed expectations, swiftly reduce achievement gaps, and enhance the lifetime learning of all students. Describes simple actions that can swiftly and substantially improve education and provides a set of structures and practices for improving instruction in any school.

Introduction: The Brutal Facts About Instruction and Its Supervision -- I. Reality and Illusion in Public Schools -- The Buffer -- Isolation: The Enemy of Improvement -- Leadership Interrupted: How the Buffer Compromises Supervision -- Curricular Chaos -- II. Literacy Education: The Greatest Opportunity of All -- The Power of Authentic Literacy -- Authentic Literacy and Intellectual Development -- The Startling State of Literacy Education -- III. Learning and Leading in the Professional Learning Community -- Professional Learning Communities: The Surest, Fastest Path to Instructional Improvement -- Leadership in the Professional Learning Community -- Scaling Up: Central Office and State-Level Leadership in the Learning Community -- Conclusion. Why Not Us? Why Not Now? -- Appendix A: Suggestions for Teaching Critical and Argumentative Literacy -- Appendix B: Start Here for Improving Teaching -- Appendix C: Agreements.