This book provides a perspective on what standards for learning mean for daily practice in public education, offering teachers and administrators a four-part structure for organizing classrooms for teaching to the standards and giving teachers specific strategies for helping students reach the higher requirements. The four practices combine all of the components necessary to meet the demands of standards-based instruction while also improving learning by: creating a community of learners through self-directed learning, interactive classrooms, and student cooperation; making reflection a routine part of the classroom for both teachers and students; teaching content and process; and using more authentic student tasks and assessment methods. The book concludes by explaining how to integrate the four practices and high stakes tests. A collection of reproducible forms is included. (Contains 74 references.) (SM)