This ebook is the result of an American Educational Research Association (AERA) sponsored research conference award regarding district reform with participants representing the United States, Canada, and Europe. The articles focus on the role of district central office in school improvement and its relationship to high-stakes accountability policies centered in the U.S. context, with implications for systems across the globe. The work represents not only a variety of settings, but also a range of promising theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches including: organizational learning, learning communities, and social network theory and analysis. Moreover, in this ebook we aim to present not only rigorous studies, but work that also has direct relevance to practice. We also offer the reader three commentaries by well-regarded scholars who consider this work within a larger global context. As a way of introduction for this ebook, we first provide a broad overview of the field and rational for taking a systems approach to understanding the work of district improvement. We then conclude with a preview of the excellent work contained in this ebook.