Consistent with education reform efforts, the achievement of systemic change in American education demands that school improvement efforts be fused with professional development opportunities that lead to self-renewal for teachers. This report emanates from a 5-day conference of the Christa McAuliffe Institute for Educational Pioneering (CMI), an organization that nurtures the efforts of innovative and creative teachers around the country. The document emphasizes professional development activities that must accompany change initiatives. Underpinning the report are personal stories that CMI teachers tell of their struggles to make change happen. A unifying theme of the stories is the presence of risk and the capacity to resist discouragement. For the group of CMI teachers who believe that educational structures and practices must be altered and whose deliberations led to this report, it made sense to look at themselves and their schools in terms of four separate but overlapping challenges: (1) diversity and multiculturalism; (2) teaching and learning; (3) systemic reorganization; and (4) coalition building. As the four challenges indicate, teachers will be the key figures in bringing about change in schools. (LL)