For decades, researchers have sought to find school-level properties that can increase the overall effectiveness of the school despite the school’s socioeconomic status. Researchers have identified many constructs at the school level, with two promising constructs being climate and collective responsibility. This study examined the relationships among climate, collective responsibility, and effectiveness, including which of the two constructs has the greatest on effectiveness. A total of 1,143 teachers participated in the study with the completion of surveys. These teachers were from a random sample of 50 secondary schools in Alabama and Georgia. Established instruments were used to survey perceptions of climate, collective responsibility, and effectiveness. Socioeconomic status was measured using the Free and Reduced Lunch percentages for each school. The findings for climate and collective responsibility in this study supported past research findings. Climate, collective responsibility, and effectiveness are all positively related. Climate shows the only significant contribution to effectiveness, with the subelement of collegial leadership having the greatest effect. The findings of the linear regressions indicated that collective responsibility had an indirect contribution to effectiveness through climate. Socioeconomic status was found to have no effect on these findings.