This report identifies the school variables (facilities, materials, equipment, class size, time, and scheduling) and teacher competencies that contribute to achievement in the basic skills. Gleaned from a literature review, the opinions of experts, research data, and identified student outcomes, the materials that accomplish the two goals are organized in sections devoted to school settings (school, class, program, teacher, and pupil characteristics and out-of-school conditions related to learning) and the basic skills areas of speaking, listening, writing, spelling, and handwriting. Each section focuses on a language arts area and contains a discussion of teaching competencies, a table of cognitive-based and performance-based criterion indicators of teacher effectiveness, and a list of references. (RL)