This book presents case-study findings of five school systems' efforts to become true learning communities through action research into the school-renewal process. The programs were located in the Southeast, Midwest, Far West, and an overseas region of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools. The programs shared three characteristics: a focus on improving student learning, an investment in people, and a commitment to generating knowledge about important aspects of school renewal and staff development. Program outcomes led to the development of the following hypotheses: (1) restructuring job assignments and schedules to build time for collective inquiry into the workplace will increase school-improvement activity; (2) active democracy and collective inquiry create the structural conditions in which the process of school improvement is nested; (3) learning to study the learning environment will increase inquiry into ways of helping students learn better; (4) connecting the faculty to the knowledge base on teaching and learning will generate more successful initiatives; (5) staff development will provide synergy and result in initiatives that have greater student effects; and (6) working in small groups will increase the sense of belonging among faculty members. Thirty-one tables are included. (Contains 134 references.) (LMI)