Safe to be Smart: Building a Culture for Standards-Based Reform in the Middle Grades

This most significant publication takes the call for standards-based reform out of the political and upper-echelon educational arenas and into the classroom. It deals fully and fairly with "the complexity of implementing standards in all classes for all students," and makes it clear that "standards-based reform involves changing not simply the content of learning but the standard operating procedures of schools."

Abundant descriptions of successful practices by the teachers and principals carrying them out give credence to the book's message and the hope that real change is possible. This important volume deserves to be read carefully both by practicing educators and those lay citizens serious about really improving the achievement of all learners.