This booklet is a reflection on a quarter century of successful leadership in a school that pioneered the nongraded learning environment and demonstrated the effectiveness of other innovations such as team teaching, elimination of tracking, long-term developmental objectives for each student, performance-based assessment, and cooperative learning. The booklet: (1) defines the nongraded school and describes its critical attributes; (2) explains what the nongraded school is designed to accomplish; (3) analyzes the organization of the nongraded school; (4) describes the placement of students in classes; (5) discusses planning of the curriculum and the instructional program; (6) identifies the necessary preparation of parents and teachers for a successsful transition; (7) describes the reporting of students' progress as a result of successful nongrading; (8) analyzes the steps to independent learning; and (9) concludes with an account of how one traditional school became a nongraded and team-taught school with outstanding results. (Contains 14 references.) (LMI)