ABSTRACT
Our examination (presented in Chapters 5 through 7) of learning at intersection encounters, from teachers with students to instructional leaders (ILs) with principals, shows how difficult it is to change an institution as large and complex as a school district. The San Diego City Schools (SDCS) seemed to have all the ingredients for success: innovative leaders who had a tested theory of action (the Balanced Literacy framework), significant human and material resources invested in a wide range of professional development activities that went beyond the traditional summer workshop approach to encompass activities that were embedded in the work at the school site, and dedicated mentors who were close to the action. Despite these positive enabling conditions, the instruction-based reform of the SDCS had neither penetrated deeply into middle school and high school classroom practice nor improved students' test scores significantly by the time we stopped closely monitoring the reform in 2002.
