How schools are organized and interact with the local community can dramatically alter the odds for improving student achievement. There are five essential supports for school improvement: a coherent instructional guidance system, the professional capacity of its faculty, strong parent-community-school ties, a student-centered learning climate, and leadership that drives change. A longitudinal study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research on more than 400 schools found that schools with strong indicators for these supports were much more likely to improve than were schools with weak indicators. (Contains 3 figures.)