The achievement gap for racial minority students is one of the most researched educational topics, yet long-term solutions for addressing this problem are elusive. Although there have been some gains for minority students overall, significant gaps still exist in reading and comprehension for a Title I inner-city school on the west coast. This correlational, exploratory study examined the relationship between the independent variables of licensure status and professional development experience and the dependent variable of teacher perceived efficacy, which is closely associated with student achievement in the literature. The framework for this study is derived from Bandura's social cognitive learning theory of self-efficacy and the conceptual construct of professional development and leadership. Spearman's rank-order correlations were used to analyze the statistical relationships between professional development and teacher efficacy and teacher licensure and teacher efficacy among language arts teachers. Findings indicate that self-efficacy did not correlate with teacher licensure, amount of targeted professional development in reading, and an added variable, years of experience. Since teacher development is necessary to achieve positive social change, researchers might conduct this study with a larger group of elementary, middle, and high school teachers as support for continued advocacy of targeted professional development for language arts teachers in inner-city schools. [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://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]