This book explores how standards are negotiated and created within classrooms, addressing how they actually play out in classrooms from the point of view of students and teachers. It follows the experiences of students and teachers at urban Powell High School who wrestled with curricula designed to expand their achievement. The book presents four portraits of students in humanities classes that demonstrate how academic standards developed over the course of a year, focusing on interactions between teachers' aspirations and students' development. There are two parts with 12 chapters. Chapter 1, "Overview" describes standards and the study. Part 1, "Observing Standards in Context," focuses on: (2) "Exhibitions and Humanities at Powell," (3) "Wayne," (4) "Gloria," (5) "Pierre," and (6) "Anwar." Part 2, "Understanding the Negotiation of Standards," includes: (7) "Students' Standards: What Students Thought about Exhibition Work"; (8) "Students Creating Standards, Individually"; (9) "Students Creating Standards, through Peer Interaction"; (10) "Teachers' Standards: What Teachers Thought about Exhibition Work"; (11) "Teachers' Expectations and Classroom Standards"; and (12) "Teachers' Role: Five Theories Revisited" (demanding, informing, teaching, arising, and negotiating). (Contains 49 references.) (SM)