This publication examines education stakeholders' initial responses to the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program in six states in the North Central region of the U.S. Created by Congress in 1997 to help raise student achievement in public schools, the CSRD program is a multi-year initiative that provides financial incentives to encourage schools to adopt comprehensive reforms. The document discusses the effect of the CSRD program on state reform programs, examines schools targeted by the program and how they heard about it, and explores why some schools decided to apply for a CSRD grant and others did not. The findings show that the CSRD program is being launched as intended, and without major disruption to existing processes for providing technical assistance to schools. Rural schools accounted for the fewest number of applicants, and, compared with urban and suburban schools, were the least successful in their bids to obtain CSRD grants. Three factors affected a school's decision about whether to apply for a CSRD grant: (1) its perceptions of the alignment between CSRD and its ongoing school-improvement work; (2) the school's ability to respond to requests for proposals as dictated by limited time and/or staffing resources; and (3) its assessment of the likelihood of winning an award based on school need. (RJM)