This volume of essays responds to What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, a 1996 report of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future (NCTAF). The report says that every child has the right to a caring, competent, and qualified teacher. As a result, politicians and educators strove to implement its recommendations in order to begin building an infrastructure of good teaching. The foreword to this volume (David G. Imig) suggests there is no need for another model program or demonstration project, but rather a systemic response that will enable novices to learn to teach more powerfully than before. The purpose of this volume is to examine efforts of leaders at each level of the educational enterprise as they consider NCTAF report recommendations. Chapter 1,"Creative Solutions for Essential Change: Newark Public Schools," (Beverly L. Hall) discusses change and innovation, highlighting New Jersey's takeover of the Newark public schools. Chapter 2, "Audacious Goal or Deja Vu?" (Karen S. Gallagher) acknowledges the familiarity of NCTAF recommendations but finds five major transformative changes that may be fruitful. Chapter 3, "Give and Take: NCTAF and Indiana's Partnership," (Marilyn M. Scannell) provides a rationale for using the NCTAF report to further one's own ends and discusses how to bring the new system of performance licensing to scale, emphasizing the importance of coalition building and adaptation of national agendas to fit local needs. Chapter 4, "Professional Development at the Center of School Reform," (Dennis Sparks) describes the National Staff Development Council's work to create standards providing a benchmark for accomplished practice that can guide professional development and school improvement. An afterword, "Building Capacity for 'What Matters Most'," (Linda Darling-Hammond) addresses the issues of developing organizational capacity, conducting efforts in a decentralized system, and conflicts arising from competing constitutencies and goals for education. (Contains 37 references.) (SM)