Despite the disproportionate number of teachers in a rural high school who held higher degrees and sought other professional development opportunities, the school failed to achieve annual yearly progress for 4 consecutive years according to guidelines set forth for by Georgia Department of Education. Therefore, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify high school teachers' perspectives about the factors that facilitated or impeded the teachers' implementation of professional development in their classrooms. The sample of 14 interviewees was derived from volunteers with diverse academic backgrounds who taught at the rural high school at the time of the study. Data analysis included axial coding of the data and aggregating data into themes and categories resulting themes indicated that professional development must be relevant, collaborative, job embedded, meaningful, and appropriate for the teachers to use in their efforts to raise student achievement. The information may interest a wider body of educators seeking to develop, implement, and solicit future professional development programs for this county system. As a result of acquiring appropriately planned and implemented professional development based upon this study's findings, teachers will be able to delve into more rigorous researched-based and meaningful performance-based instructional techniques, resulting in advancing student achievement. As the teachers gain additional knowledge, they may be able to implement these best practices in the classroom and collaborate with other teachers in meaningful discussions regarding what students should know and how to accurately assess progress.