The classroom is at the heart of the often-mixed messages of school reform and school practice. Educators must make sense of these mixed messages in order to engage in the work of teaching. Viewing educators as social agents amid the complexity of educational discourse and practice provides a distinctly different lens on reform than those traditionally used by policymakers. In this article, the author explores how teachers at one Philadelphia middle school engaged their agency in order to navigate the complicated terrain of school reform. The author examines how, in the midst of negotiating the demands of top-down reform, these educators attempt to find ways to teach in alignment with their professional and personal beliefs about schooling.