The main purpose of this study was to compare how the environmental factors associated with effective schools are incorporated in the Swedish national education policies and in the education policies of Uddevalla Municipality, Sweden. These environmental factors refer to the reciprocal relation of the characteristics that are essential to effective schools.

The study sought to fulfil the following objectives; to identify the presence of these environmental factors in the Swedish national education policies and compare to their presence in the education policies in Uddevalla municipality.

The study was guided by the System Theory of organizations. The study adopted qualitative comparative case study design. Interview was used to gather information from representative of the education sector in Uddevalla municipality while formal government institutions documents were used to gather information on the education policies.

The findings of the study revealed that not all the environmental factors associated with effective schools were present in both the Swedish national education policies and the education policies in Uddevalla municipality.

The study concluded that some the environmental factors associated with effective schools had been incorporated in the Swedish national education policies and in the education policies in Uddevalla while some were missing. The study recommended that policy makers should incorporate the missing environmental factors in the Swedish national policies and in the education policies of Uddevalla municipality. Further research may be done on educational policy making and the implementation of these environmental factors on the schools' level.