This report describes the North Carolina Department of Education's 5-year plan for establishing a statewide management information system. The system is intended to improve fiscal management, personnel administration, and administrative operations, and to ensure efficient resource use. Initial sections present highlights of the plan; background information and a summary of objectives and scope; technical and organizational deficiencies the plan should remedy; and specific types of information needed by the department, by school districts and schools, and by external agencies. The report then describes strategies for executing the plan--supplementing existing hardware, changing some management practices, and ensuring data security--and summarizes the plan's component projects. Finally, the next two sections describe, first, the plan's schedule, development procedures, and estimated costs; and second, measures needed to ensure the plan's success. Appendixes contain (1) a membership list for the committee that produced this report; (2) cost and effort schedules; (3) descriptions of 18 specific projects, with a diagram showing their relationships; (4) a summary of the approach used to estimate efforts and costs; and (5) a list of proposed hardware and communications links. (MCG)