This study attempted to identify which tactics used by administrators had the greatest influence on the introduction of special education curriculum innovations. Surveys and interviews with administrators in 39 sites were used to gather data. The administrators were those identified as advocates of a particular innovation, the Social Learning Curriculum for handicapped students. The survey was adapted from the work of Hull and Kester, based on their theoretical framework of tactic types. This framework, however, did not differentiate among advocates' actions used to introduce a curriculum innovation. Consequently a factor analytic procedure was applied to the data. Three tactic use factors were identified and named following Chin and Benne's conceptualization of strategies of changing. This conceptualization identifies strategies as empirical-rational (in this case, involving the communication of information), power coercive (here, involving the use of mandates or orders), and normative-re-educative (involving the creation of conditions within which teachers may innovate). The only tactics that were significantly correlated with extent of diffusion of the innovation (defined as teachers in possession of all or part of the curriculum at the time of the study) were the empirical-rational tactics. A copy of the Leadership Actions Survey is appended. (Author/JM)