Looking at literacy teaching across classrooms at the urban Mill City Charter School provides an opportunity to explore the importance of coherence within a school. This work was informed by teachers' voices and classroom observations over several months. Findings suggest that when teachers and school leaders share a common theory and vision for…

Focuses on what the authors have learned from six exemplary teachers of writing who teach within high-stakes accountability systems. Notes that based on what they have seen in the teachers' classrooms and discussed with them and their students, their response to the reality of high-stakes testing is the need to "teach true and to the test in…

Defines the value of classroom research in terms of three paradoxes: (1) it steps back by taking an intimate look; (2) it yields a holistic view but also reveals the dynamics of its parts; and (3) it is a unique whole and a part of inquiry into language and learning. (RS)