Considerations in the design and implementation of the technical assistance (TA) system for supporting Pennsylvania's statewide school improvement initiative are analyzed. After a brief introduction, the authors describe the key features of the initiative, called Long-Range Planning for School Improvement (LRPSI). They briefly review recent…

Focusing on the promotion of reform and knowledge use in school districts, this paper reports on data from a study investigating assistance and enforcement strategies adopted by three types of regional educational service agencies. Assistance in this context means provision of legal or program knowledge needed to operate successful programs.…

This paper argues that a mix of expertise is required to develop curricula and adapt them successfully to local school districts and outlines the strategies involved in using linking agents or agencies to bridge the gap between research and development (R & D) agencies and local school districts. After an introduction, the second section of…

The Interstate Project on Dissemination specified four components as critical for a successful state information dissemination system: linkage, information, incentive, and management. An analysis of Pennsylvania's system, using this Project as a referent, uncovered several problems: (1) the linkage component was not functioning; (2) local…