Targets of educational reform in the United States have included classroom teachers, students, and school structure. Increasingly, nonstructural aspects of schooling are being examined as avenues to educational improvement. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences among professional staff members' perceptions of being in a continuous mode of learning and improvement in low- and high-performing schools and in high-performing learning communities. Data were collected and analyzed from questionnaires sent to the faculty members of 45 low-performing schools in Alabama and 48 high-performing schools in Kentucky. Results show that in low-performing schools across both states, professional staff members identify the area of school/family/community connections as being most in need of learning and improvement, and that high-performing schools are not necessarily high-performing learning communities. Because staff members in high-performing schools always scored higher in questionnaire scaled responses than staff members in low-performing schools, it is concluded that measuring a faculty's commitment to continuous learning and improvement is one effective way to assess the reculturing of a school's professional staff. Recommendations include repeating this study with schools in other states, and doing longitudinal studies, among other designs. (RT)