The first phase of an investigation of interest groups seeking to influence decisions about education provided data about such groups' identities, objectives, tactics, and effectiveness and more importantly, provided information about the data-gathering process that will improve efforts to expand the study of such groups. Nineteen of 30 superintendents from selected school districts who had previously participated in an informal program sponsored by the department of Administration at the University of Toledo (Ohio) responded to open-ended questionnaires. The responses revealed that the questions asked were probably given individual interpretations by the respondents. Classification of the results was thus impossible, though the range of results received enabled the investigators to develop preliminary classification schemes to use in conjunction with a more precisely formulated questionnaire that could draw a full range of responses from every respondent. The developed classification of groups by objectives divides interest groups into those of local origin and those affiliated with larger organizations, and into those making demands of the educational system and those providing support for the system. The classification by tactics matches the tactics used by the group with the group's intended targets. Groups are classified by effectiveness in terms of the extent to which they meet their own objectives. (PGD)