This article discusses high schools and reform. During the past two decades, school reformers have sighed when speaking of change in secondary schools, saying they were the hardest--and would be the last--nutshell they would seek to crack in making significant improvements in the education of young people. Efforts in secondary schools would need to be incremental, most experts thought. Instead, a sudden burst of talk, money, and policy proposals has made it obvious that those in high schools are going to have to act--and soon.