One simple and straightforward way to learn about individuals' concerns about an educational innovation is to ask them to respond to the question, "When you think about (the innovation), what are you concerned about?" This manual is intended to aid school officials in analyzing these open-ended concerns statements in order to effectively assess and respond to common concerns. The authors first examine the nature of concerns about an innovation and how to deal with them, with particular emphasis on the "seven stages of concern about innovations" model developed at the University of Texas. They then discuss the actual use and scoring of open-ended concerns statements and present sample data collection sheets, sample concerns statements scored according to the seven stages of concern, and sample concerns statements that illustrate each of the seven stages of concern. (Author/JG)