Outgrowths of Mississippi's Education Reform Act of 1982 include the development of more stringent standards for both school accreditation and teacher certification. Successful completion of staff development has become the basis for recertification of Mississippi teachers and administrators, and, beginning in the 1984-85 school year, districts seeking state accreditation have been required to establish staff development plans (SDP). During summer 1985, information was requested from 154 districts about their current and projected staff development programs. An analysis of the information returned by 127 districts provides the basis for this report, which consists of a sequence of commentaries on eight appended tables. Table 1 contains the guidelines tested during the 1984-85 school year by 16 school districts and then revised for use by all school districts in designing, developing, and implementing an SDP. Tables 2 through 7 report findings on the following topics: categories of employees receiving staff development activity offerings; when during the school year training activities were conducted; what times training activities were scheduled; the composition of the SDP's; follow-through procedures; and allocation of funds for staff development. Table 8 contains 13 recommendations based upon an analysis of the information obtained from the study. (IW)