Vincent A. Anfara, Jr. is Associate Professor of Educational Administration and Policy Studies at The University of Tennessee. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of New Orleans in 1995. Before entering the professoriate he taught for 23 years in both middle and high schools in Louisiana and New Mexico. His research interests include middle school reform, leadership in middle schools, issues related to student achievement, and qualitative research methods. He is Past-President of AERA’s Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group, the Chair of the National Middle School Association’s (NMSA) Research Committee, and a board member of the Tennessee Association of Middle Schools (TAMS). His research has been published in Educational Researcher, Education and Urban Society, School Leadership, Leadership and Policy in Schools, and the NASSP Bulletin. His most recent book, From the Desk of the Middle School Principal: Leadership Responsive to the Needs of Young Adolescents (2002), was published by Scarecrow Press. He is the series editor of The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education. Norma T. Mertz is Professor of Educational Administration and Policy Studies at The University of Tennessee. She received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, with a collateral in anthropology and education. Before becoming a faculty member in educational administration at The University of Tennessee she taught language arts and social studies in every grade from 7th through 12th; prepared teachers to work in urban, inner city-schools in Michigan and New York City as an assistant professor at Eastern Michigan University and Hunter and Brooklyn Colleges; and was an assistant director of the Race Desegregation Assistance Center and Director of the Sex Equity Assistance Center before joining the faculty of educational administration. Her research has been published in Educational Administration Quarterly, Urban Education, Journal of School Leadership, Planning and Changing, and Communications of the ACM, and represents both qualitative and quantitative research designs.