The ninth volume of this 10-volume report summarizes and synthesizes the outcome of the study, describing the design, sample, analysis procedures, and findings from the examination of federal and state dissemination strategies and from the survey and field studies of local sites. The examinations of the federal and state components result in one major recommendation: to establish a single federal office for facilitating productive exchange between the array of efforts using dissemination for school improvement. The examinations of local site components, both survey and field studies, reveal that the local adoption of new practices is influenced by the motives and attitudes of teachers and administrators, the assistance activities of central office and external facilitators, and the match-up between current practice and innovation. Antecedents, characteristics, and outcomes of practice implementation are discussed, and 10 major conclusions are derived for policymakers at all levels. These bear on the lack of coordination between federal dissemination strategies, the interface between federal and state programs, and the ingredients of successful adoption and implementation at the local level. (TE)