In her new book, Betty Demarest describes a bold agenda for education reform--one that is firmly grounded in a synthesis of educational research about learning, teaching, and the contexts of education. The author's "learning-centered" framework includes: (1) a broad and balanced set of education goals, (2) a multi-faceted concept of achievement, (3) classroom capacity for learning, (4) systemic capacity and infrastructure, (5) shared, reciprocal accountability, and (6) systems of multiple assessments. New research-based concepts in these six areas are critically compared to older concepts behind standards-based reform and No Child Left Behind. This book features: (1) A comprehensive, alternative framework for future education reform that focuses on improving the core educational practices of learning, teaching, content, and leadership; (2) A federal role that emphasizes meaningful partnerships rather than top-down control; (3) A critique of past standards and present accountability-based frameworks, with implications of the learning-centered framework for future national policy, especially ESEA; and (4) An operational definition of educational capacity, a re-conceptualization of accountability, and a sharp reversal of the relative emphasis placed on these strategies.