This case study explores the sustained role the Annie E. Casey Foundation played for more than a decade to help create an environment in which an ambitious and comprehensive effort to improve public education for all children in Kentucky would have the time, resources and attention needed to prove its worth. As the case describes, the sweeping goals and aspirations of Kentucky's school reform efforts--revolutionary in 1990--caught the attention of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The foundation's mission is to build better futures for disadvantaged children who are at risk of poor educational, economic, social and health outcomes, and it believes that changing public systems is essential to making progress in issues regarding public welfare. Interested in expanding its grantmaking in education, the foundation concluded it could learn a great deal from working in Kentucky. (Contains 19 footnotes.) [For "Persistence, Partnership and Public Will: The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Investments in Kentucky School Reform. Principles for Effective Education Grantmaking. Case in Brief Number 2," see ED537196.]