In a comparative analysis of values in state education policy, this paper demonstrates the need for a multifaceted methodology to understand the complexity that characterizes state sociopolitical systems. The paper refers to a study of education policy values among six states in its analysis. Identifying values and their influence form the central research questions in policy analysis. The methodology of quantitative covariation measures variables to account for policy variations; however, the focus upon selected realities excludes non-quantifiable variables of theoretical relevance. Code analysis focuses on state statutes and upon content analysis to derive historical values' interrelationships. Most states have altered value emphasis over recent decades, although the value of choice persists. Constituents' values influence policy elite through broad and narrow concerns. Quantitative and code analyses examine substative policies, but a third path describes the process that produces them. The process-oriented method deals with the perceived influence of constituents' values upon policymakers and discovers their implicit assumptive worlds. A handful of central domains can structure the assumptive worlds that are embedded within the myriad of informal accounts that appear within and among the states; analysis elucidates cultural elements in policy context. A multiple approach maximizes methodologies that ask different questions to yield different answers about complex interactions of behavior and value in political systems. Twenty-eight references are appended. (CJH)