To cope with the demands of enacting the newly reformed Curriculum Guidelines for Nine-year compulsory Education, many elementary and junior high schools are involved in the implementation of school-based curriculum development. However, the positive effects of school curriculum innovation not only depend on perceiving correct conceptions, but also rely on having all sorts of necessary support. In the process of implementing the ideal practices of school-based curriculum development, creating a supportive environment and a collaborative team that encourages professional development, dialogues, interactions, and resource redistribution, has become the most challenging task for many schools. It is important for schools participating in school-based curriculum development to understand the related issues of curriculum development in order to grasp the factors that influence the autonomous development of school curriculum. Then, those schools may find strategies to break through the possible barriers that they may confront in their efforts of reforming school curriculum. Based on literature review and a qualitative investigation of the current school-based curriculum development movement in elementary and junior high schools in Taipei, this study analyzes the related factors for autonomously developing school curriculum. The findings are discussed from four aspects: teacher, school system, curriculum development procedure, and external social factors. Suggestions for the implementation of school-based curriculum development are also provided.