Recent studies of turnarounds of low-performing schools have focused on the factors that made their successes possible. The author of this article realizes that it would also be valuable to look at what made the schools decline in the first place and the factors that might hinder their transformation. He focuses on some of the aspects of the school turnaround process for which more research is needed if the promise of No Child Left Behind is to be fulfilled. He also discusses some of the aspects of low-performing schools and the school improvement process that require closer scrutiny. (Contains 9 endnotes.)