To shed light on these questions, in 1986 the Center for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) began a five-year study of the implementation and effects of state education reforms in six states chosen for their diverse approaches to reform: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. Some findings from the first three years of this research were published by CPRE in a report, The Progress of Reform: An appraisal of State Education Initiatives, written by William A. Firestone, Susan H. Fuhrman and Michael W. Kirst. In writing the report, the authors relied to a great extent on research conducted by their colleagues on specific reform policies in the six states and others. They also drew from other reports and studies on the status of reform and from structured conversations with national association representatives and reform leaders in other states. This issue of CPRE Policy Brigs contains material from the report which provides an interim assessment of the 1980s reforms