School improvement programs emphasizing certain school effectiveness correlates are now fairly common. While program implementation is often a focus of school effectiveness research, teacher efficacy and collaboration are also important. Large-scale aggregate studies viewing students' socioeconomic status as the chief determinant of academic success have been used to support financially conservative policy views and have been criticized for failing to recognize inherent limitations that mask "pockets of excellence." Ethnographic studies of school improvement programs are increasingly being used because statistical analysis is inadequate to describe exemplary practices or to identify and suggest effectiveness models that can be replicated. This paper discusses a recently established educational program addressing student underachievement in a large urban public school system. The research and evaluation design, a classroom implementation checklist, sought to document teacher efficacy through analysis of (1) staffing and instructional grouping characteristics and (2) classroom characteristics and instructional strategies. Results show (1) that a qualitative approach to school improvement program research is needed in order to interpret quantitative findings; (2) that ethnographic or "interpretive research" encourages researchers and subjects to engage in collaborative dialogues; and (3) that critical ethnography must recognize the concept of reflective inquiry between researchers and subjects. Included are 2 summary charts, 39 references, and an appendix containing the implementation checklist. (MLH)