A conceptual framework that provides a mechanism for anticipating the worth and potential success of staff development activities, in advance of their implementation, is described. In the first section, descriptions are given of the four main components of the staff development framework: defining staff development, salient organizational features, participants' roles, and an evaluation perspective. A description is given of the roles of key participants in staff development: the planners, providers, recipients, and evaluators. Section II provides a full discussion of each of the dimensions, its conditions, and their interrelationships. Section III illustrates the use of the conceptual framework for appraising the value of proposed staff development activities. Several typical staff development activities are analyzed to show the use of the framework for forward-looking evaluation. The concluding section briefly discusses research and policy issues arising from the application of the framework to staff development activities. (JD)