This article discusses a dilemma that confronts reformers who seek to improve the education system yet operate from a position outside that system. On one hand, "external" reformers have found that the implementation of school-level programs is attenuated by a lack of coherence and support in schools' environment. Districts and states often enact policies and pursue initiatives that are not consistent with the aims and practices of intervention designs. On the other hand, when reformers redraw the boundaries of their operations to include districts and states, they are beset with an array of new problems inherent in such partnerships. The current discussion explores the dynamics of this dilemma by examining the experience of the America's Choice School Design between the years 1998 and 2003. The discussion concludes by arguing that while interveners cannot ignore schools' environments, their efforts to gain leverage on them will never be more than partially effective. (Contains 19 notes and 3 tables.)