This guide is the first of three documents that make up a Professional Development Package for Educational Systems Design. Together, the documents constitute an integrated package designed to help educators and others accomplish specific purposes relative to a communitywide systems design effort. The orientation guide is ideally used in a 1-day study and discussion session for educational and community leadership and is designed to provide a basic understanding of educational systems design. It provides an overview of the process as it might take place within a school district and community and is also intended to convince orientation session participants of the importance of educational design as the needed strategy for reform. The listed purposes of the orientation session are as follows: (1) to explore the implications for education of the rapidly changing societal environment and advances in knowledge about learning and human development; (2) to develop among educational stakeholders an appreciation of the power of design for creating more appropriate systems of learning and human development; and (3) to help stakeholders to explore and reflect upon their responsibilities and the specific contributions they can make to the redesign of education. (MLF)