Throughout the past couple decades, educational reformers have argued that changes are needed if schools are going to meet the demands of our society. The 1983 Nation at Risk report brought the apparent sad state of American education to everyone’s attention. Since that time, there has been no small amount of finger pointing from all invested in educational reform. We have all mastered, to some degree at least, the skill of depersonalizing blame. We do it in part to survive a world that daily puts us in situations that are both complex and demanding. Our response, well, my response, is to blame others when some of my best choices go wrong. As a result, I have an ability to argue that schools have not changed for lots of reasons but the reasons are seldom because of my inertia. No, the reasons are usually far more diffused: union agreements, administrative incompetence and far too many underqualified teachers. The answer, the problem, is always “out there” and because of someone else. The faculty at the University of Dayton has decided to take a risk and try to make both a philosophical and structural strategic reform move with its support for an early college high school. This issue of the Dayton Educator describes the concept quite clearly, and it is one of our small steps toward being a part of the reform solution. Whether the early college concept will work remains to be seen. But the fact that the UD faculty members are trying to make a difference in the lives of young people who need advocates cannot be denied. If the early college succeeds, and I think it will, we can point our fingers at all the wonderful people who made it happen. And if, by some chance, it does not? I hope that for once we can say that our goal made the risk necessary and that our intentions make reflection, not finger pointing, essential so that we can regroup, restructure and try it (or something!) again. Dayton’s young people need us exploring solutions, not affixing blame.