School-level environments differ from the classroom environments. Classroom environments involve students' perceptions of their relationships with teachers and other students in their classrooms; school-level environments involve mainly teachers and school staff's perceptions of their work environment, their relationship with other teachers, senior staff, and students. Research centering on teachers' perceptions of the school environment provide the current knowledge base in this field; however, principals' perceptions of school environment remain to be explored. Eight urban school principals--four each from effective and ineffective schools--participated in this study. Results indicated that, in general, these principals had positive perceptions of their school-level environment despite the adverse conditions in urban public schools. Principals from effective schools, however, perceived significantly greater teacher interpersonal relations with their students, colleagues, and parents. These school principals also rated their student academic orientation and school standards higher than their counterparts. They also had more confidence in their leadership, they motivated teachers more, and they asked teachers to participate in decision making more than did principals from ineffective schools. (Contains 48 references.) (DFR)