After years of school improvement efforts to include Georgia’s four hundred-million-dollar Race to the Top grant, Georgia’s elementary, middle, and high schools have failed to significantly improve schoolwide student achievement. This qualitative portraiture study focused on three successful principals of previously chronically failing Title I schools in Glenn County, Georgia. Purposeful sampling methods were used to select principals based on three years of increases in College and Career Readiness and Performance Index (CCRPI) scores. Each principal was able to improve schoolwide student achievement thus having their schools removed from the chronically failing list. The purpose of this study was to understand the roles of identified school principals with regards to improving chronically failing Title I K-5 schools in Northeast Georgia. Data were collected using multiple virtual interviews with the participants, observations of the participants in their schools, and a review of school documents. The researcher collected field notes and used school documents to triangulate the data with information shared during the interviews. Data were analyzed using in vivo, values, process, and content coding methods. Themes were derived during the data analysis process to answer the research questions. The themes included participants’ experience in Title I, identifying student and staff needs, shared leadership, Title I budgeting, community partnership, intervention programs, collaborative planning, and culture and climate. Keywords: Title I, Leadership, Student achievement, School improvement, turnaround leadership, principals