It is readily apparent that, expect in unusual cases, the basic decisions that affect the work lives of teachers, as well as the performance of their students, come from on high, from top-down leadership in its most pristine form. In most settings, teachers have little or no say in scheduling, class placement, how specialists are assigned decisions on hiring new teachers and, perhaps most telling at ground level, the preparation of budgets and materials. This is not the stuff of professionalism.