The presentation focuses on students` attitudes and behavior in schools and considers its causing factors in the socio-ecological context of schools, especially the culture of learning and the social climate in classrooms. In a longitudinal design a sample of 2.212 pupils (from 96 school classes) between the ages of thirteen and fifteen and 562 teachers from twenty chosen secondary schools in Niedersachsen/ Germany were surveyed by questionnaires in 2000/2001 (t1) and again 27 months later in 2003 (t2). Further data are based on surveys of principals and teachers (n=562/ 464). Two parts of the study should be presented: The first part draws focus on learning and social behavior of students and determining factors in the learning environments of the school, based on a socio-ecological approach. The study checks on interrelations between learning culture and social climate on one side and achievements, attitudes, motivation and learning behavior of students on the other side. The individual data of the students of whole classes are aggregated on the class room level (n=96). With cluster analyses three groups of classes can be found: successful classes (with positive effects), indifferent classes and problematical classes (with negative effects). In this three groups of classes different patterns of learning culture can be showed. Several important conditions and context factors of learning culture and characteristics of teaching can be identified: teachers support for learning, student-oriented lessons, pressure on demands as well as: motivation, adaptive teaching methods, structured lessons, task-oriented activity effective learning time, classroom control and different forms of teaching. Further analysis can show, that factors of social climate as the relationship between teachers and pupils, restriction in teaching behavior, integration, cohesion and commitment within classes are important determining variables too. Different results show, that the patterns of the teaching and learning process and the quality of educational environment are closely related to attitudes and learning behavior of students. Beyond it social effects of the school culture on the students' dispositions are proved: self-confidence, fear, school-involvement and deviant behavior in classrooms. Almost no relationship can be find between variables of the learning environment and achievement in mathematics, but there is a strong interrelation between the scatter of performance and characteristics of learning culture and teaching. In the secondary schools of this sample no cluster of classrooms are to discover, where we can find high achievements and low scatter of performance. The second part of the study - based on longitudinal analyses with data of principal- and teachers-surveys - shows interrelations between variables on the school level (effective leadership, intenseness of teacher cooperation, institutionalized teams, school program work) on one side and opportunities of learning for students and different forms of teaching on the other side. Some of the assumed effects can be corroborated with multiple regression. The foundations of case studies verifies important factors of the organizational culture, especially effective leadership (dispositions and styles of principals, leading competences) and process factors of school program work and internal evaluation. The development of the learning culture contingents on the quality of school organization, but the chosen development strategies, connected with school program work have not short term impacts on teaching and learning process. The study is able to identify key conditions for successful teaching form. The results are ready for transfer of knowledge for extern school support systems and school counseling and teacher training. At last recommends are focused on improvement on the school level and the level of system steering.