The Ford Training and Placement Program, organized by the Department and Graduate School of Education of the University of Chicago in cooperation with the Chicago Board of Education, trains and places new teachers in inner-city schools and retrains the teachers already in those schools. The program features a social system's approach to the training and placement of educational professionals at various grade levels and in various subject areas. Five characteristics of the program include 1) function; 2) content; 3) structure; 4) process; and 5) interaction of function, content, structure, and process. The need to specify program functions concerns the problems to be addressed, the frame of reference with which to view the problems, and the functions to be performed. The content of the program is a four-faceted operation: focused preparation of preservice personnel, co-ordinated preparation (training in common with others who would work in inner-city schools), selection of the induction or target schools, and creation of cadres or teams (university and school based). Structure of the program was viewed in terms of an effective and stable staff. The fourth characteristic stresses a complex process by which the program maintains itself and undergoes revision. The final characteristic is the effective and efficient interaction among the elements in the program. General outcomes indicating the success of the program included the unqualified success of six cadres and a 62 percent return of interns to the inner-city school where they trained. An 18-item bibliography is included. (MJM)