ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the reader to the factions of teachers at Central High School. The teachers at Central fell into three distinct groups. First, the ‘Idea Team’, a faction made up mostly of female teachers, fought against the prevailing structure and culture at Central in their struggle to bring about detracking. The Idea Team created the plan for restructuring at Central High. Second, the ‘Good Old Boys’, a faction of entrenched male teachers, defended the status quo in the school, including tracking, and the dominant ideology that held it in place. Third, the ‘Middle Group’, a large group of teachers, who, unlike the Idea Team and the Good Old Boys, did not constitute a definable faction in political terms and whose actions did not as profoundly influence the course of reform.1
