In order to clarify what we know about effective public schools, the Education Policy Studies Laboratory (EPSL) at Arizona State University invited a group of distinguished education scholars to review the research on a series of education reform topics. These literature reviews are the result. Some reviews focus on specific proposals that are proffered for making public schools more effective. Others examine core components or practices in our public schools in order to evaluate the impact of those components and practices on student achievement. In each case, the reviewers examined the research on the topic at hand with a particular eye toward its findings with regard to student achievement, especially that of children living in poverty.