Since any standards-based reform is made to bring about an improvement in students' learning, it requires changes in teachers' practices as well. This study examined how a standards-based communicative curricular reform in general secondary school English in Egypt has changed teachers' classroom practices, and the factors influencing such practices. The study depended on data triangulation through administering a questionnaire to 263 teachers, and using classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with 33 teachers. The results indicate that the standards-based curricular reform has not brought about the desired changes in teachers' practices. Teachers were found to allocate much more instructional time and effort to grammar and vocabulary than to the other language skill components. This means that the standards-based communicative textbook series is taught non-communicatively. The interviews and questionnaire showed that five factors influenced teachers' practices: washback, culture of teaching, inadequate time, students' low English level, and lack of equipment and materials. Of all these factors, washback was the most influential. The study suggests that for this standards-based communicative curricular reform to serve as a catalyst for changes in instruction, there has to be another parallel reform in the students' examination system. Additionally, other teacher-related and contextual problems should be addressed. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables, and 1 footnote.)