This study looked at conceptions of effective high schools held by high school principals, central office staff members, and representatives of the state department of education in Delaware. Data were collected through personal interviews and analyzed through "phenomenological content analysis." Four very different images of effectiveness emerged. The first image or conception emphasized program characteristics of effective high schools. The second image focused on the characteristics of personnel as the central determinants of effectiveness. Rules, regulations, and job descriptions were emphasized in the third image, the bureaucratic conception of effectiveness. The last image, a unified concept, combined characteristics of the other images and appeared to view effectiveness more holistically. The most frequent image was a combination of the program and personnel images. Ways to check the construct validity of the images include the use of Cronbach's definition of construct validity, an examination of the internal logical consistency among images, and an analysis of the responses organized into chart form. Metaphors and assumptions about the purposes of schooling can be inferred from the images. (Author/JM)