"Martin Packer's Changing Classes is a tour de force. Most ethnographic studies of schooling stop short on one side or the other of the classroom door. This keeps us from a more comprehensive and deeper grasp of the complex interaction between what happens inside and outside the school. Packer, seeking a cultural account of schooling, deftly tells a vivid story of attempts to change schools creatively--through the work and play of children, teachers and administrators--in response to devastating changes in the community. He brings changing national and state political forces into this account to show us how broad, competing school reform initiatives clash with nuanced attempts at local reform. This is a remarkable achievement." Jean Lave, University of California, Berkeley.