Elementary schools face pressures to substantially increase student achievement in all subjects with limited time in the school day. In particular, science struggles to gain instructional momentum due to many internal and external factors. The school district of Wynne (pseudonym), located within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has generational low systemic science achievement. This study explored the district's barriers to science achievement by examining four macro, meso, and micro-level policies. Drawing upon a researcher-developed conceptual framework, four impeding factors of science achievement were: (1) policies and pressures; (2) narrowing of the curriculum, (3) time on learning, and (4) and grade span alignment. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews of district administrators and educators to determine which organizational barriers negatively impacted elementary science instruction. The interview subjects' experiences allowed for a historical case study of elementary science practices spanning four decades. Current elementary school master schedules and other district-level science instruction documents were reviewed as data collection instruments. Five themes emerged through the analysis of the data collection instruments: "The No Child Left Behind Act brings negative pressure, elementary school's are exclusively focused on teaching literacy and mathematics, the principal alone controls the instructional time, simple curriculum and lesson setup increases science instruction, and the school district lacked professional development protocols for science learning." [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]