This edition features current research, practice, and policy related to the Joyce Foundation's Shifting Gears initiative beginning with an interview with Whitney Smith, Manager of the Employment Program at the Joyce Foundation. Julie Strawn, Center for Law and Social Policy, presents a national perspective of basic skills reform efforts similar to…

Effective practices typically evolve over a long period in high-functioning, fully engaged systems. Historically, schools have been confronted with project after project, program after program, initiative after initiative. Many of these aim at addressing learning, behavior, and emotional problems and making schools safe and drug free. This issue…