To compete and succeed in modern society, high school graduates need to be expert readers, writers, and communicators. Too many are not. Annually, hundreds of thousands of 12th graders on the threshold of graduating can barely read or write. Given the high stakes for these students and knowing a great deal about their literacy needs and the teaching practices that are effective with them, finding ways to put that knowledge immediately to work to improve the culture and conditions of secondary schools in the United States is an imperative. Equipping middle and high schools with trained literacy coaches is at least one line of attack to combat "the quiet resignation that seems to pervade education circles...that little if anything can be done" (Joftus, 2002, p. 1). This book is broken up into three Parts: (1) Leadership Standards; (2) Content Area Literacy Standards; and (3) What We Know and What We Need to Know, about Literacy Coaches in Middle and High Schools: A Research Synthesis and Proposed Research Agenda.