Shaw High School is one of two schools making up the Shaw School District. The school is located in an old and once majestic building whose large concrete pillars still stand at the entrance. A small white house across the street holds the district administrative office. Several buildings, detached from the main building, house the cafeteria, media center, and other operations. Money is scarce at Shaw. The school board managed to put a new roof on the high school's main building several years ago, but there have been few other improvements in many years. The few physical improvements that have been made include a computer room and a Family Resource Center made possible by grant funds. In 2002-2003, subsequent to their efforts to implement place-based learning in writing and mathematics, Shaw School District adopted the First Things First comprehensive school reform model. Shaw saw in First Things First some points of intersection and compatibility with its ongoing improvement and reform efforts. The model called for small learning communities, extended instructional time for literacy and mathematics, family advocacy, active engagement of students, alignment of teaching with standards and high stakes assessments and rigor. An on-site coach assists with implementation. On the long and winding road to improvement, Shaw High School teachers and leaders have drawn from the various initiatives in which they have engaged over the years, and are successfully integrating selected aspects of each into a blended comprehensive school and community improvement effort. Despite missionary-like zeal, visionary leadership, pride and commitment to excellence, Shaw faces daunting challenges in the days ahead. The spirit of the place and people gives reason to believe that they will not succumb under the weight of the challenge; they will use it to spawn new zeal, new creativity, and new commitment. Still, one cannot help but wonder how long the creative juices can flow through the near abject poverty and neglect. What remains to be done is what Shaw cannot do for itself--obtain adequate funding to provide the quality education that its young people need and deserve, and improve the conditions that would make the town of Shaw a good place in which to live, work, and play.