While researchers continue to debate teacher qualifications, explore how to get more qualified teachers into urban schools serving low-income students, or try to determine whether teachers who are successful with middle-class students would also be successful with pupils in low-income urban schools, one practicable idea can easily be overlooked. That is the idea of improving the achievement of low-income students by enhancing the competence and performance of teachers who are "already working" in the neediest schools. In this article, the author shares her experiences in designing and implementing a program that enhances the competence of the teachers who already work in the neediest schools. Learning Through Teaching in an After School Pedagogical Laboratory (L-TAPL), which was launched in 2001, aims to improve the achievement of low-income students and to enhance the preparation of their teachers. One of L-TAPL's central ideas is that student learning and sustained academic achievement require students' commitment to learning. (Contains 9 endnotes.)