Research for Better Schools (RBS) is supporting improvement efforts in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. One form of this support is RBS's participation in collaborative projects to develop a system-wide, research-utilization approach to the improvement of basic skills instruction. Educational systems following the approach employ a staff development program that enhances the ability of teachers and supervisors to use classroom research findings to improve instruction. Improvements are determined accoring to the process needs of individually diagnosed classrooms. The main elements of the approach are designed to address problems that tend to prevent practitioner's use of research, such as: low utility of research for classroom use; limited knowledge of teachers in using research findings; difficulty in reaching all classrooms with an effective improvement approach; and the limited means of educational systems for data-based guidance of their instructional improvement efforts. The main elements of the model are (1) a four-phase instructional improvement cycle; (2) a strategy for collaborative implementation/support of the cycle in use; (3) an evaluation design for determining effectiveness of the approach; and (4) the staff development program, designed to develop the ability to effectively use all elements of the approach. (Author/GSK)