Studies of the use of ethnography as an evaluation tool in large-scale contract research studies were reviewed before data collection and design decisions were finalized in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP). Five tasks had to be accomplished before data collection could begin: study sites were selected, a system for data collection was devised, organizational and data-retrieval methods were designed, preliminary study questions were developed and expanded from the RFP, and field data collectors were trained. In the final selection process, eight sites were selected and evaluated on the following criteria: (1) past history of involvement in other similar projects; (2) understanding of the mandate of the federal program; (3) management plan for the project; (4) geographic location; and (5) overall quality of the funded proposal and likelihood of its success. All eight projects had well-developed statements on multicultural education, collaboration and field-based teacher education, and strong management plans. Data were collected from informal interviews, unstructured observations, written materials produced by the project, miscellaneous contextual information such as newspaper clippings of events influencing projects and attendance at various meetings in the projects. This methodology was compared to that of other ethnographic case studies. (RL)