Editor's Introduction
Sam Stringfield

The year 2000 opened on a strong note, having begun with our first double issue, a special issue on the research findings of the first five years of the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR); volume 5, number 3 followed on its heels. With this issue of JESPAR, we close the year on another strong note.

Volume 5(4) begins with Thomas Hatch’s important question, "What Does it Take to ‘Go to Scale’?" In his communications feature, Hatch provides one answer to that question, and virtually every subsequent paper in this issue can be related to Hatch’s thoughts.

Kenneth Wong and Gail Sunderman, in their article, "Implementing Districtwide Reform in Schools with Title I Schoolwide Programs: The First Two Years of ‘Children Achieving’ in Philadelphia," describe the first two years of large-scale efforts at districtwide Title I schoolwide reform in one of America’s largest school districts. Martha MacIver, in "Seeking Justice in Educational Opportunity: An Analysis of the Evidence on School Vouchers and Children Placed At Risk," provides a very interesting contrast in examining evidence on the role of school vouchers in improving the education of at-risk children. MacIver’s is a strikingly dispassionate view of this rapidly growing reform trend. Her view is all the more important because, unlike many who write about this reform area, MacIver struggles to cast much more light than heat. The two articles present very different definitions of reforms going to scale. Jason Sachs examines inequalities in early care, and asks, "What is America buying?"—an inquiry into scale created through a third set of mechanisms.

Volume 5 ends with our most extensive set of book reviews to date. Barbara Wasik opens the section with an essay/review contrasting two recent U.S. government publications, both products of consensus-seeking, expert panels concerned with early literacy.

Gerunda Hughes provides a powerful review of The Black-White Test Score Gap. Her weaving of prior research and personal experience creates a striking introduction to this highly thought-provoking volume.

Next is Marisa Castellano’s review of Rong and Preissle’s volume on educating immigrant students. In examining the challenges before us, the authors reveal several parallels to the Black-White achievement gap, together with several important differences. Cutright’s review of Barbara Townsend’s volume of two-year colleges for women and minorities extends the themes associated with seeking success for traditionally disadvantaged groups upward to community colleges.

Stephen Plank points out the strengths and limitations of Third Millennium Schools, by Townsend, Clark, and Ainscow, an interesting and potentially important volume examining school reform in diverse nations around the world. Kathy Tiner’s review of Clinchy’s volume on educational reform in the US, Reforming American Education from the Bottom to the Top, provides yet another contrast, while Charles Teddlie’s thoughtful review of the Peters and March volume dedicated to the centrality of classroom observation and interaction in school reform picks up directly on one of Clinchy’s main themes.

Kevin Welner takes on the potentially daunting task of reviewing Michael Fullan’s Change forces: The Sequel. Both the book and the review are stimulating.

Marcella Dianda ends Volume 5 with a review of Stoll and Myers’ appropriately named, No Quick Fixes: Perspectives on Schools in Difficulties. Today we know a great deal more about improving the education of at-risk students than we did five years ago. We can provide parents, teachers, schools, and districts with a great deal more practical, research-based guidance. Still, there will be no miracle cures, no "silver bullets," and there will be "no quick fixes"—this being all the more reason to look forward to Volume 6 of JESPAR, which begins with a special issue on parent and community involvement in diverse contexts.

The entire editorial team of JESPAR gladly expresses heartfelt thanks to all of the persons who served as reviewers for this volume. Without the thoughtful, time-consuming contributions of our reviewers, JESPAR could not approach its current high standards.

And JESPAR could hardly exist at all without the loving work of three additional people: Dr. Faustine Jones-Wilson, Dr. Amanda Datnow, and Ms. Tiffany Meyers. As associate editors and assistant editor respectively, these three do their work so skillfully that my limitations are rarely obvious in JESPAR, and my job is often more fun than work. Thanks to each of them.

And thanks to each of you, JESPAR’s readers. For all of us, may 2001 be the best year yet!