Although education has always been perceived as a means of personal and social betterment, increasing numbers of children have a complex and deep range of personal, social, and economic conditions that hinder their education. Students from poor families and from black, Hispanic, and American Indian families are particularly at risk. In the past, the schools have largely failed to adapt to many of the accommodations that student differences require. They have added new programs to serve these students, but have not made the organizational and procedural changes required for these programs to succeed. We must work to transform our schools through a series of small efforts which should include changes in teacher education, collaborative efforts by teachers, and instructional experiments designed by teachers themselves. 30 references.