This book is designed to inform the educational community about the empirical foundations of productive high schools. Part 1 focuses on the core technology (learning and teaching), the organizational systems in which the core function are nested (the ecology of the institution), and the institutional linkages between the school and its environment. The opening section places the notion of the productive high school in historical context, especially in the light of shifting organizational aims and evolving theories of learning. Part 2 sketches out a portrait of a productive core technology while clarifying the factors responsible for effective classroom learning environments. Part 3 examines the empirical evidence linking organizational structures and routines with enhanced learning. The lone chapter in part 4 explores the theoretical underpinnings of the research on productive high schools. The conclusion reached is that if productive high schools are desired, then researchers, practitioners, policymakers, parents, and citizens must create institutions very different from most that inhabit our communities. They must strive to create models of learning-driven school communities that allow for and encourage excellence, and support and implement them. (RT)