When veteran education writer Karin Chenoweth set out to explore schools that succeeded against the odds, she was especially surprised by one discovery. “I knew I would find schools that had beaten the odds. But I worried about the cost in terms of the lives and the health of the teachers and principals. Would they be bitter, overworked, and just tired because of all of the effort?” she wondered. Instead, she found just the opposite. “These guys are pumping! They are so energetic and invigorated. They work very hard, but they are successful and that drives them to be more successful,” she said. Chenoweth found great respect and caring in each of the schools she documents in It’s Being Done (Harvard Education Press, 2007), a