The National Study of Effective Title I Schoolwide Programs was initiated to address the lack of information on how schoolwide programs affect teaching and learning and student outcomes and to develop a critical empirical base for strengthening the implementation of Title I programs in service of students in high poverty schools. This paper provides an overview of findings from the preliminary analysis of the study's first year database. In the first section, the rationale and the extant research base on Title I schoolwide programs that provided the research are discussed. In the second section, the study's research design and findings from the preliminary analysis are presented. During the 1997-98 school year, researchers gathered data from 33 schools in 9 urban districts and 4 countywide districts. Of these, 17 were considered more effective schools, and 16 were identified as less effective schools. The concluding section of the paper contains an exploratory discussion of implications for policy development in light of the upcoming Title I reauthorization. The preliminary findings from this project suggest the need for closer links between the federal government and school districts in helping schoolwide programs develop coherent instructional strategies. These federal initiatives constitute what is termed "procedural accountability" in Title I schoolwide policy. Procedural accountability is a useful way to measure the extent to which knowledge is used effectively to meet the legislative expectations of the Title I program. An appendix discusses the research design and the coordination of data collection. (Contains 9 tables and 10 references.) (SLD)