In the context of findings from the recent nationwide studies and reports on the status of education, this paper focuses on the program assessment, instructional planning, and resource allocation efforts of the Rochester (New York) School District. The first phase, the Rochester Assessment Project, began with informal meetings between the superintendent and various constituencies, from which impressions were obtained about the strengths and weaknesses of the district. This information was verified with more formal assessment procedures, and a database was compiled on such issues as demography, achievement, attendance, student mobility, suspension, student loss, and special education. On the basis of this information, consensus was reached about necessary program changes, and a tentative 3-year course of action was outlined. As an illustration of how planning is related to assessment, one of the 18 initiatives in the 3-year plan, a regrouping of the seventh and eighth grades, is described as a response to findings from the assessment project. The final section describes how money and resources were allocated by the superintendent and the board to implement the project. A summary, in which the interdependence of program assessment, instructional planning, and resource allocation is reemphasized, concludes the paper. (TE)