Introduction: The Brutal Facts About Instruction and Its Supervision -- I. Reality and Illusion in Public Schools -- 1. The Buffer -- 2. Isolation: The Enemy of Improvement -- 3. Leadership Interrupted: How the Buffer Compromises Supervision -- 4. Curricular Chaos -- II. Literacy Education: The Greatest Opportunity of All -- 5. The Power of Authentic Literacy -- 6. Authentic Literacy and Intellectual Development -- 7. The Startling State of Literacy Education -- III. Learning and Leading in the Professional Learning Community -- 8. Professional Learning Communities: The Surest, Fastest Path to Instructional Improvement -- 9. Leadership in the Professional Learning Community -- 10. Scaling Up: Central Office and State-Level Leadership in the Learning Community -- Conclusion. Why Not Us? Why Not Now? -- Appendix A: Suggestions for Teaching Critical and Argumentative Literacy -- Appendix B: Start Here for Improving Teaching -- Appendix C: Agreements.