Many trends, including lack of understanding by state leaders, hamper efforts to implement high-quality middle schools, Mr. Elmore points out. But the ideals summarized in Turning Points are as valid today as they were in 1989. SUBSTANTIVE improvement in teaching and learning can be difficult under the best of circumstances. As the stories in this special section reveal, the chances for sustainable change increase dramatically when strong, visionary leadership exists. Effective leaders help everyone overcome difficult challenges to achieve excellence for all students. Today, myriad challenges face middle-level educators attempting to implement best practices. The issue of education has become increasingly politicized - a fact evident in the campaign season that recently ended. Some stakeholders, seeking an educational advantage, press aggressively for vouchers and tracking. The standards/accountability movement is exerting extraordinary pressure to raise test scores. School populations are growing increasingly diverse, and problems related to poverty are persistent. The stream of reforms with which educators must contend can seem overwhelming. Frequently, the litany of criticism and proposed changes emanates from sources far from the classroom. Suggested improvements come from national panels formed by professional organizations or created by foundations, from the media, and from politicians, who are advised by representatives of business and industry. Occasionally, teachers are invited to the conversation. In recent years, the standards movement has focused attention on the need to raise the test scores of middle school pupils. Some observers have suggested that middle school educators misinterpreted the recommendations of Turning Points, emphasizing social and emotional development and equity issues over academic achievement. In the decade after this report was issued, I visited many middle schools and did not find this to be true. Instead, I observed teachers and administrators working very hard, under difficult conditions, to emphasize academic achievement in caring ways. While test scores may not be as high as many would like them to be, it is difficult to blame an excessive emphasis on social and personal development and equity for that. In the mid- to late Eighties and in the Nineties, accountability pressure was relentless. To address that pressure, middle school educators clearly stressed the basic subjects. Schedules were departmentalized, and bells rang every 50 minutes. Most middle schools more closely resembled junior highs than true middle schools. Often the only evidence that one was in a middle school was the sign in the school yard. If the middle school concept was on the rise in the Seventies and early Eighties, the movement now struggles to maintain earlier gains. In Georgia - an early leader in the middle school movement, as discussed in my introduction to this special section - support for middle schools has been lost. The state school superintendent has repeatedly sought to dismantle middle schools through the removal of special funding. Studies were undertaken by the state department of education, presumably to demonstrate the failure of middle schools. …