Children who are raised in poverty currently run grave risks of educational failure. This paper approaches the issue, not through concentrating on special problems of, and programs for, the educationally at-risk, but through focusing on the educational problems of young people generally and on the effect that schools, not programs, play in alleviating or worsening those problems. A school survives, grows, and adapts through constant exchange with its environment. Internally, it has its own distinctive structures and processes, its own culture. The organization and the structure together constitute an overarching system of behavior in which everything is related to everything else. These factors determine the schools' educational effectiveness. Examination of the High School and Beyond (HSB) and the Administrator and Teacher (ATS) surveys reveals the following factors that affect school performance: (1) external authorities; (2) school staffing; (3) principals; (4) goals and policies; and (5) teachers and teaching. Private schools, which appear to be more effective than public schools, tend to develop team-like organizations that exercise greater control over the school; public schools are captives of democratic policies. The experience of Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 (originally Title I of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act) has been shaped by the dynamic of public control, which has been, in turn, shaped by Chapter 1. If school environments have as much to do with the organizational attributes of effectiveness as the comparative analysis of public and private schools indicates, and as the Chapter 1/Title I experience suggests, vigorous school organizations may be difficult to cultivate within the current system of public education. In order to be effective, public schools may have to adapt the organizational structure of private schools. Fundamental reform may be the only hope for school improvement, and hence for greater educational gains for the poor. A list of references is included. (BJV)