This article presents a counternarrative informed by personal, critical, and qualitative perspectives, written in response to articles on effective classroom literacy instruction for improved academic performance published in March 2009 in "Educational Researcher." Classroom literacy instruction is a complex undertaking that must include an understanding of local communities, schools, and classroom contexts, especially in culturally and linguistically diverse and low-income schools. Edu"poli"tical research refers to the intersection of education research and federal intervention that informs education policy. A way out of the quicksand of unresolved debates over epistemology, pedagogy, and methodological and analytical approaches to effective classroom literacy instruction, teacher-student interactions, and student performance is a collaborative effort to create dense theories of instruction informed by a broad body of knowledge.