In this compelling book, Tony Wagner analyzes the complex and often painful process of undertaking meaningful school reform by examining the experiences of three representative, yet very different schools in Massachsetts as they attempted to implement significant program changes during the early 1990s. Rejecting as inadequate such traditional "objective" quantitative methods as looking at average test scores and dropout rates, Wagner chose instead to use a mix of qualitative research techniques including extensive observation of classes and of large and small group meetings, analysis of documents ranging from official publications to memoranda, and one-on-one interviews.
