This handbook focuses on five long-standing correlates for effective schools postulated by the late Ron Edmonds. Edmonds searched long and hard for those variables that were present in successful inner-city schools populated primarily by African American children. His work demonstrated that it is possible to educate so-called hard-to-reach students if the correct ingredients are present in the school environment. The five postulates are: (1) strong administrative leadership; (2) a climate of expectation; (3) the right atmosphere; (4) basic skills; and (5) monitoring of pupil progress. Many educational strategies are suggested as appropriate means of seeking to implement Edmonds' criteria. Most are not new, but many are untested in schools. The genuinely at-risk students of our"nation at risk" have not yet been helped by contemporary educational reforms, but these strategies offer approaches that may succeed. (SLD)