The purposes of this paper are to assist those currently considering the establishment of regional educational laboratories to better understand the complex organizational and interorganizational environment in which such laboratories would exist and to help officials make rational decisions regarding how best to facilitate educational service improvement within the three regions being considered for laboratories. A conceptual framework that can be used to clarify differences among existing school improvement efforts is outlined. It creates three organizational subfields: service delivery organizations (SDOs), knowledge producing organizations (KPOs), and service improvement organizations (SIOs). A typology of SIOs that distinguishes among them in terms of the strength of a particular organization's links to SDOs, KPOs, and other SIOs is also introduced. The typology is used to consider the advantages and disadvantages of three generic options for the creation of regional laboratories. In the last section of the paper, eight steps central to a process of rational decision-making regarding which options might be best for which region are presented. (Author/IRT)