The national track record for state-to-district assistance is not stellar. It is tactics in the absence of strategy and activities in the absence of accomplishment. The problem is systemic: State departments need to transform their organizational structures to facilitate rather than hinder effective assistance strategies. The starting place is understanding what's been learned about the landscape of educational, organizational, and political issues involved in state-to-district intervention. State education departments must translate their leadership role into an overall strategy that is based on a clear idea of the problem at hand and designed to help local-level educators, policy makers, parents, and students succeed.