School leaders could see all their students ascend to new heights of academic achievement and find their jobs de-stressed and joyful--if they focused on only the one or two most urgently needed instructional initiatives. Schmoker makes the "case for less" and notes that if school leaders applied strict criteria to select the initiative (or two) that would be most powerful in their school, they would likely find it to be one of three priorities: creating a coherent curriculum; promoting authentic literacy; or delivering instruction that includes the elements of clarity on what will be learned and how learning will be assessed, and frequent checks for understanding.