There is no excuse for the failure of most public schools to teach poor children. All children can learn, as the principals and schools profiled in this book have demonstrated. These schools and administrators have overcome the bureaucratic and cultural obstacles that keep low-income children behind in most public schools. The 21 high-performing, high-poverty schools profiled have not succeeded by chance. Their success is the result of hard work, common sense teaching philosophies, and successful leadership strategies that can be replicated. The first part of the book contains discussions of effective practices that have made these schools successful: (1) parental accountability; (2) teacher quality; (3) effective diagnostic testing; (4) emphasis on basic skills; and (5) the effective allocation of funds. The second section contains the profiles of the 21 "no excuses" schools. Four appendixes contain educational reform models, research summaries, titles for further reading, and definitions, methods, and study procedures. (Contains 38 references.) (SLD)