In the fall of 1998, the Education Trust constructed and administered a survey of 1,200 schools that had been identified by the states as their top-scoring or most improved schools with poverty levels over 50%. The 366 elementary and secondary schools that responded to the survey serve student populations that are largely poor in urban and rural areas. Survey findings reveal that these top performing high-poverty schools tend to: (1) use state standards extensively to design curriculum and instruction, assess student work, and evaluate teachers; (2) increase instructional time in reading and mathematics to help students meet standards; (3) devote a larger proportion of funds to support professional development focused on changing instructional practice; (4) implement comprehensive systems to monitor individual student progress and provide extra support to students as soon as it is needed; (5) focus their efforts to involve parents in helping students meet standards; and (6) have state and district accountability systems in place that have real consequences for staff in the schools. The second section of the report discusses each of these major findings. Sections 3 and 4 follow with a profile of the schools responding to the survey and a description of the study methodology. An appendix contains the survey. (SLD)