ABSTRACT
Those of us working in P-12 education and teacher preparation are by now quite used to the relentless “sky is falling” assessments of our public school classrooms. Our teaching, research, advocacy, and policy making seem to play out against a dreary backdrop of disturbing “achievement gaps,” alarming dropout rates, staggering teacher attrition statistics, vast cultural misunderstandings, enormous budget shortfalls, and decaying infrastructures. But such assertions-heartbreakingly accurate though they may be-often eclipse the pioneering success stories that counteract some of these problems. Preferring to dwell on our forest of dysfunction, we sometimes miss those trees of innovation.
