Extensive media coverage of New York City's Harlem Children's Zone's cradle-to-career program over the past several years has served to focus mainstream attention on school reform in a way unprecedented in recent history. Cradle-to-career programs seek to provide children living in poverty with a high-quality birth-to-employment education through a continuum of services that include health, social and economic supports in addition to school. School-family-community partnerships and data-tracking of student progress are central to the cradle-to-career model, which asks not just educators but all community service providers to take responsibility for student outcomes in an effort to break what the Children's Defense Fund terms the "cradle to prison pipeline" of these communities. Although philanthropic funding for cradle-to-career programs remains uneven, and federal funding is an increasing challenge for all such initiatives, early results of this reform model are capturing the attention of more and more at-risk communities across the country. With partnerships and shared goals as key elements, cradle-to-career programs unite communities by stressing collaboration and accountability over competition and isolation. This is aimed at encouraging success for every child and ending intergenerational cycles of poverty.