In this article, the authors explore whether educational systems have the institutional capacity to implement comprehensive, systemic reform, as envisioned in legislation such as No Child Left Behind. Drawing upon evidence from various state-level reform initiatives, the authors highlight the ways in which systemic reform appears to positively impact organizational change. However, they caution that systemic reform initiatives are uneven across the states and may produce unintended consequences, including perverse incentives to lower academic standards for students to give the appearance of making adequate yearly progress toward systemic reform objectives. The authors recommend that researchers carefully study the impact of systemic reform initiatives on students and on the institutional changes occurring in the American educational system.