Zavadsky describes effective practices she has observed in the five urban school districts that were finalists for the 2005 Broad prize--practices required or catalyzed by No Child Left Behind. The article lists three key NCLB-driven strategies these schools used to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps: clarifying and aligning curriculum; collecting and using data; and targeting interventions for struggling students and schools. Zavadsky gives examples of how the districts carried out these strategies.