This study attempted to identify some of the major problems that a State Education Agency (SEA) might encounter during the transition from an agency headed by an elected Chief State School Officer (CSSO) to that same agency headed by a State Board of Education (SBE) appointed CSSO. Five States--Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and West Virginia--were selected for the study on the basis of their shifts to a board-appointed CSSO. Data were gathered by interviewing persons who held key positions in the State at the time of transition. Each of the five chapters of this report is devoted to one of the five study States and is a complete entity with text and the corresponding appendix. The text of each chapter is divided into (1) a brief history of the SEA up to the year selected by the author as being the "jumping off" point for the change, (2) principal studies or processes that led to the change, together with information about what followed immediately after the implementing statutes were enacted, and (3) a review and an appraisal of the current governing structure as seen by study participants. A separate chapter summarizes some of the findings. (Author/JF)