This research brief is published at the mid-way point of a five-year study that is analyzing a spectrum of programs in four states to identify outstanding English instruction in secondary schools. Outstanding schools are defined as those whose students beat the odds and outscore their peers in comparable skills on high-stakes, standardized test of English language skills. Six common features are identified: (1) Students learn skill and knowledge in multiple lesson types; (2) Teachers integrate test preparation into instruction; (3) Teachers make connections across instruction, curriculum and life; (4) Students learn strategies for ways to do the work; (5) Students are expected to be creative thinkers; and (6) Classrooms foster cognitive collaboration. English teachers in the effective programs draw from a broad scope of instruction approaches. They are enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and dedicated, and their students, many of whom live in poor, urban neighborhoods, are active, engaged, and "minds on" in class. While more typical schools in the study want scholars to do better, and take action towards that goal, they lack the overall systematic, organized, highly informed and participatory features that pervade the more successful schools. When all six identified features pervade the education environment, they add the comprehensiveness that English programs require to make a difference in helping all students attain the language and literacy skills they need.