Ten years ago, the Atlanta Public Schools had low and declining student achievement, demoralized teachers, crumbling buildings, high turnover among superintendents (average tenure of two years) and disaffected parents pulling their children out of the system. More than 60 percent of the city's high school students missed at least two weeks of school per year, and the district had more than 700 teaching vacancies. Fast forward 10 years, and Atlanta has reversed its dismal numbers. For the transformation led by superintendent Beverly Hall, the Atlanta Public Schools applied a proven approach that organizations around the world have used to beat the odds against successful strategy execution. The secret is placing strategy as the centerpiece of a dynamic leadership and management system. The system is based on the balanced scorecard, a performance measurement framework developed 20 years ago to address shortcomings in how corporations measure their performance. Through the experiences of the Atlanta Public Schools, the authors see an excellent route for driving systemwide performance measurements.