Eight case studies of initiatives to improve schools for rural or disadvantaged children are provided: the New School Programme in Columbia, the Democratic School Model (CIEP) in Brazil, a plantation school in Sri Lanka, the local improvement efforts in Thailand, the education programme for futal development in Nepal, the school reform in Ghana, strategies for providing education in Burundi and the Accelerated Schools in United States. The studies found that effective schools share several common features with respect to provision of necessary inputs, existence of facilitating conditions and the will to change. The book is unique in its focus on developing countries and good schools for impoverished children. It is aimed at MEd, postgraduate education students and lectures in international, comparative education. Developmental workers in NGOs, teachers in developing countries.