This report discusses the results of a five-year effort to develop a comprehensive planning process that would enable school districts to initiate and maintain a self-sustaining planning capability. In addition to examining the general principles and procedures of the comprehensive planning approach to school district planning, the author describes in detail a two-year field test of a self-instructional version of the system in the Neshaminy School District in Pennsylvania. Data from the field test indicate that the tested planning system can be used with minimal outside help to successfully initiate a curriculum-level planning capability within a school district. (JG)