Since the publication of "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission for Excellence in Education, 1983), school reform has not been far from the center of dialogue about public education in the United States. This report certainly provided a reference point for much of the reform that immediately followed it and much of the reform that currently exists. Still, this report identified or perhaps constructed for the American public a "problem" to be solved, and educational reform was to be the solution. Most recently, reform efforts have focused on standards-based curriculum and accountability through high-stakes testing (including the use of standardized testing). These efforts have been the focus of a great deal of fruitful debate about how best to serve children in U.S. public schools, both in terms of the efficacy of district or nationwide standards and the attachment of "high-stakes" tests to these standards. What is not central in this debate is teacher response to the implementation of reform efforts at the classroom level. Teacher opinions and feelings about reform efforts are critical not only because of the fact that teachers will be held responsible for the successful implementation of these reform efforts, but more specifically and perhaps more importantly, because teachers are themselves professionals and their opinions about and response to these efforts reflect the benefit of daily contact with schoolchildren. In this article, the author attempts to return focus to teachers, their practice, and the way they "notice, construe, construct and operationalize the instructional ideas advocated by reformers" at one elementary school in Riverside, Florida.