This paper analyzes a research project that maps implementation efforts of comprehensive and mandated change at the primary school level in The Netherlands. In examining this large-scale national reform program, the report deals with schools whose innovation efforts acquired funding from the central education department in return for their local attempt to experiment with change implementation and their own version of school reform. These specially funded schools acquired what is termed "contract status." The report focuses on the effects of contract status on the school's life and program implementation activities. The two research approaches--qualitative and quantitative--both address the same set of research questions. The qualitative section is a multicase study that involved documentation of implementation efforts in four schools. Interviews and observations were derived from theoretical notions on mandated implementation in schools to understand the nature of such processes at the local level. The quantitative section involves a survey of 25 schools, each the subject of structured interviews with the principal and of questionnaires administered to teachers. (Data analysis is in progress.) In reporting on the context of educational reform, focus is on concepts serving as leading themes for empirical study. To integrate concepts from innovation and organizational theory, researchers are currently mapping outcomes of contracted implementation work at the school level. The description of implementation of contracted change should be theoretically relevant for other cultural settings as well. (CJH)