The purpose of the current qualitative study was to explore the characteristics of high-performing Title 1 schools that narrow the poverty-related achievement gap employing an extreme sampling case design. The study examined four case schools that were selected based on 2019 CAASPP data as published on the California School Dashboard with the delimitation of being located in Los Angeles or Orange County, California. Tinto & Pusser's (2006) model of institutional action was paired with Bass' (1985) transformational leadership theory to form the conceptual framework for the study. Four administrators and seven teachers were interviewed using an interview protocol comprised of a series of open-ended questions based upon the literature review and conceptual frameworks. The study used interview transcripts and observations of teachers as data sources, with school accreditation documents used for triangulation purposes. Data gathering for study took place during the 2022-23 school year. After at least three iterations of data analyses, the following themes emerged at all four schools: (a) conscious, explicit efforts to create a school community that includes all students, (b) the use of structures to increase awareness of school and student contexts, and a willingness to dedicate time, resources, and personnel to meeting as many needs of their students as feasible, including building trust and involvement with families, (c) adjusting instructional techniques and programs to data gathered about students via the aforementioned themes and formal data-based decision-making processes, and (d) leaders that are goal-focused and relationship-oriented to allow for collaborative, driven staff to work together on commonly-owned goals. The leadership theme was superordinate in that site leaders ensured that each of the three other themes were present with dedicated resources to accomplish associated actions. The study produced several implications for practice including using the emergent themes as a framework for hiring staff, a reflection tool for current educators, and as a device for evaluation of school leadership. Possible further research in the area of high performing Title 1 schools includes: using the emergent theme as a framework for analyzing high-poverty schools in other geographic regions; examining schools that successfully meet different academic metrics; conducting the study using schools selected from post-pandemic data; and examining negative case studies for similar traits & emergent themes. [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.]