This guide, the first in a series of 13 publications, is designed to be used for evaluations of local education agencies (LEA) in Illinois. It introduces the series and provides an overview of the 12 local leader guides that follow. Each of these guides describes a specific evaluation activity and suggests purposes, methods, and events for conducting it. The 12 activities are the following: examining student evaluation of instruction, conducting student/employer followup, measuring student competencies, assessing basic skills, assessing student services, assessing special needs services and identification practices, assessing access and equity, evaluating facilities, evaluating instructional materials, analyzing cost-outcome analysis, analyzing community resources, and assessing community needs. The guide contains five sections following the description of 12 evaluation activities in the first section. The second section of the user guide suggests steps in getting ready for locally directed evaluation, such as, why evaluate, what should be evaluated, who should conduct the evaluation, and how to overcome possible barriers to evaluation. The third section of the user guide provides a procedure and task breakdown for conducting the evaluation. For each of the 10 tasks, subtasks and steps are suggested for carrying them out. The final two sections of the document suggest ways of using results and provide samples of documents to be used in the evaluation process. (KC)