This study was guided by two key questions: First, what dimensions of continuous improvement do school leaders believe are most important to foster student performance in urban K-12 schools? Second, how does Alabama compare to national leaders regarding their approach to continuous improvement? Initially developed by Meehan et al. (2002), the 60-item "Continuous School Improvement Questionnaire-Revised" (CSIQ-R) was used to assess the overall "importance" and "six dimensions" scores (learning culture, community connections, shared leadership, shared goals for learning, purposeful student assessment, and effective teaching). A six-point response scale was used, ranging from "1" (not at all important) to "6" (extremely important). Leaders from the Council of Great City Schools and principals from two urban districts in Alabama were invited to participate. Fifty-six leaders (32 elementary, 23 secondary) participated. Descriptive statistics produced an overall importance rating of 5.26, with dimension scores ranging from 5.02 to 5.39. Shared leadership (M = 5.39, SD = 0.608) was reported to be the most important dimension in continuous school improvement, with school/family/community connections (M = 5.11, SD = 0.906) being relatively lowest. The national and Alabama leaders found school/family/community connections to be the least important. Implications discussed include having policymakers better grasp the dimensions of school improvement and their role in building civic capacity and engagement. Recommendations for further research include conducting similar studies with a larger sample size, different samples (i.e., urban and rural districts), and alternative research paradigms to track the progress of urban schools. [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.]