Richard DuFour, a leading advocate for creating professional learning communities in schools, shares his insights on why teaching has become an "embattled profession" and the steps teachers and school leaders can take to enhance teachers' practice and their working lives. DuFour explains how recent reforms aimed at educators themselves have disempowered teachers and how teachers are being scapegoated as the reasons U.S. students aren't achieving more--although, by many indicators, schools are getting the best results they ever have. Drawing on his experiences using PLCs to improve schools--as a high school principal, superintendent, and consultant--DuFour describes the best ways to create conditions for true teacher collaboration and leadership, which enhance teachers' professional lives and morale as well as student achievement.