Her investigation is very thorough; it is based on many hours of classroom visitation and interviews with both teachers and pupils ...Her conclusions are an important contribution to courses in secondary school methods and school administration.' - Choice McNeil argues compellingly that the quality of classroom teaching and learning she observed reflected the responses of teachers and students to the organizational context of their schools ...This book points to the ironic possibility that, as policymakers attempt to improve schooling by increasing control (rather than by fundamentally restructuring schools and teaching work), they are likely to exacerbate the very problems they seek to solve. They, and the educators asked to implement school reforms, would do well to read this book.' - American Journal of Education