This publication is intended to help improve the educational planning and evaluation practices of the several hundred small- to medium-sized Wisconsin school districts that do not have a centralized planning staff. Although it was prepared specifically for school districts in Wisconsin, its content is just as useful and applicable to districts in other states. Separate sections of the booklet discuss the purposes and expectations of local educational planning, describe several possible approaches to initiating local planning, examine the value of educational needs assessment and its relationship to an overall planning program, present a functional definition of comprehensive planning and describe an educational planning model developed by the Wisconsin Section for Educational Planning, and present an analysis of the Wisconsin planning model. (JG)