In 1998, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered schools in 30 urban school districts to adopt comprehensive school reform (CSR) models as a part of the long-running Abbott v. Burke school finance case. Five years later, the Court would relax that mandate, resulting in a major education policy shift as the New Jersey Department of Education formally released many schools from the model requirement and did not enforce the mandate on others. This article describes New Jersey's experience with CSR, the challenges to its implementation, and the circumstances that led to its near abandonment as a policy direction.