A growing body of research has suggested that teachers who give their students the opportunity to voice their opinions by purposefully negotiating the curriculum can improve engagement and realize a number of important affective goals. In this paper, we describe the study of one teacher, Jennifer, as she attempted to purposefully negotiate the…

When Stephanie Smith became the principal of Seaford (Delaware) Middle School four years ago, she was told to accept the fact that the school would never be able to change its status as a school that needed to improve. She did not accept that. To improve performance levels, she set the expectations high. Her defiance paid off: the school is now…