A study regarding the implementation of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in four eastern Massachusetts prime sponsor areas (Cambridge, Lowell, New Bedford, and the Balance of State) was done to (1) examine the impact of the decisions made during the implementation of CETA on manpower services and institutions, program participants, and others in the community, and (2) compare manpower programs under CETA with pre-CETA centralized and categorized programs, where possible. Generalized impressions and facts gleaned from a series of prime sponsor field studies carried out over a three-year period were summarized. The primary focus of the summaries was on the issues and impacts of CETA implementation that crossed geographic areas. Several conclusions follow: (1) Administrative difficulties have occurred in most of the prime sponsors, although some problems have been worked out by the third year, (2) the involvement of elected officials in planning and implementing training programs tended to be stronger in the smaller cities than in the larger ones, (3) coordination of other non-CETA employment and training programs with those funded under CETA has yet to come to fruition, and (4) the national funding formula handicaps the larger cities at the expense of suburban areas with lesser needs. (This report concludes with eleven recommendations for improvements in CETA.) (EM)