Comprehensive school reform (CSR) has the potential to help overcome inequities in education, to provide a vehicle for a combination of state and local control, and to allow reform to permeate the classroom. It is instructive and timely to survey the research on CSR models to determine how well the programs are performing. This monograph does not attempt to synthesize the results of evaluations of individual CSR designs. Instead, it focuses on principles learned from evaluations of CSR, especially large-scale implementation of efforts of CSR designs. A section about CSR implementation reviews what is known about: (1) variations in implementation; (2) design choice; (3) principal leadership; (4) politics; (5) support from design teams; (6) resources; and (7) context. The third section considers preliminary findings from research about the effects of comprehensive school reform on student outcomes. Recommendations for implementation of CSR are synthesized, and recommendations are presented for future research. Most of the conclusions that can be drawn about CSR at present focus on implementation. They stress the importance of teacher participation, principal leadership, adequate resources, and contextual factors. An appendix describes CSR models. (Contains 173 references.) (SLD)