This research is basically a search for a model to explain why some districts achieved a higher degree of desegregation than others in their efforts to disestablish the dual system. The population studied consists of all of the school districts in Mississippi, and the unit of analysis was the local school district. Three types of variables were conceptualized and measures developed: school, community, and desegregation. Desegregation was the focus of the study and therefore the dependent variable. However, no effort was made to determine cause and effect. The measures of the variables were drawn from both primary and secondary sources and were gathered on the 147 districts. Primary data were obtained from district superintendents by use of a questionnaire which contained 47 items. There was a 95 percent response rate. Secondary data were gathered mainly from publications by the State Department of Education, records of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and Publications of the U.S. Census Bureau. Field theory provided the theoretical framework through which the desegregation process was viewed in the school and the community. However, its use was limited in that the complexity of the subject and the lack of related studies make it difficult to utilize a general theory at the basic level of analysis demanded by the data at this stage in the research of the desegregation process. (Author/JM)