ABSTRACT
As I mention in the introduction to the second edition of this book, much has changed in the world since the completion of the book in 1993. In this chapter I review briefly the important educational policy changes that have taken place in the 1990s, both nationally and in Massachusetts. Without this background one cannot make sense of what has happened in the last seven years in Hull, Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, and the Brimmer and May School. I also think the Massachusetts story is an invaluable case study about how educational reform actually takes place at the state level.
