This monograph considers the prospects for improving teacher engagement in urban schools through professional and organizational reform. Urban education is a special context for teaching, with the complications of social, political, and organizational conditions that make the schools difficult settings. One of the problems is increasing teacher detachment and alienation from their work and their students. Research is summarized that finds that while it is not possible to change the social origins or community resources of students, it may be possible to change the relationship between social class and teacher commitment and engagement if organizational conditions are created that make it easier for teachers to experience success. Teachers must be engaged in four ways: with the schools, the students, and academic achievement as a goal and with a body of knowledge. Profiles are presented of three public, nonselective, urban high schools with high teacher engagement from a sample of eight schools in which the reform process was studied. Characteristics of school culture and organization that promote the four types of engagement are explored. Engagement is most profoundly intensified when there is a sense of vision or purpose about education and the specific students served. (Contains 52 references.) (SLD)