Rossman, Corbett, and Firestone examined three high schools in the midst of change. Teachers and administrators consented to grant the authors a year in each of their respective settings in order to understand better their unique system of norms, beliefs, and values as well as to track their reactions to events. The ensuing observations and interviews reveal a rich and detailed picture of the efforts to accommodate new policies and practices as well as some of the sources of resistance to change in the schools. The record of the authors' journeys with these schools provides educators, policy makers, and researchers--all those interested in school change and renewal as well as staff development in the schools--with a better understanding of the complex texture and meaning of educational refor

Gretchen B. Rossman is Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Leadership and Administration Program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

H. Dickson Corbett is the Director of Improvement Studies at Research for Better Schools, Inc. in Philadelphia.

William A. Firestone is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education, and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Research in Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.