Background/Context: In the field of education, the lens of agency has provided a valuable conceptual alternative to deterministic portrayals of schools as oppressive institutions where teachers and students have little power over the conditions in which they teach and learn. A number of studies have investigated teacher and student agency, but few…

Having studied schools in the past eight years that have high concentrations of students living in poverty, but who consistently exceed the performance of similarly impoverished schools, the authors conclude that such higher-performing schools share common characteristics setting them apart. The three most essential are: Teachers, administrators,…