The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the required professional development activities and to determine whether these activities impacted classroom instruction in a new literacy curriculum. The study was limited to first and second grade teachers of schools in a parochial school system located in the southwestern sector of the United States and included schools located in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas during the first year of implementation. Staff and professional development activities centered on the essential elements of reading and focused on instructional strategies identified as key to a "comprehensive balanced reading" program. Data was collected using a teacher survey designed to measure teacher perceptions of professional practices and impact on those practices both prior to and during the initial phase of program implementation. Telephone conferences with select teaching professionals were used to follow-up initial survey contacts. Collected data was analyzed to identify demographic characteristics, levels of training with instructional strategies employed in a comprehensive balanced literacy model prior to and during the transitional stage, teacher perceptions of impact on professional practices, and impact of the literacy curriculum. This study revealed that teachers perceived that classroom practice was significantly improved as a result of the required professional development.