Tabular procedures for analyzing open-ended responses were used to study a school district's educational reform program. Responses of a rural Arizona Career Ladder (CL) school district's teachers and administrators to three pairs of open-ended questions contained in the 1989 Perception Assessment Scale survey comprised the data base for the present study. The survey questions asked subjects to identify the perceived strengths and indicators of insufficiency of the overall CL program, and perceived strengths and weaknesses of organizational climate by district and school. There were six subsets of specific responses. Responses were clustered and substratified in a qualitative matrix form according to the respondents' CL status and years of experience. Careful examination revealed several critical underlying items. Substantial teacher input and ownership were considered essential, and respondents indicated that the primary focus should be student achievement and teacher accountability. The biggest problem identified was lack of consistent application of rules. The analysis demonstrated the usefulness of structured qualitative analysis in the model validation process. Nine tables contain the cells of the qualitative data matrix and the ranking of the strengths and insufficiencies derived. (SLD)