Effective strategic planning has clearly become a skill that is essential to the survival of managers in public and private sector agencies alike. While sometimes thought of as being an overly quantitative and excessively time-consuming activity, strategic planning does not need to be characterized in these terms. In its simplest and most straightforward form it can be a highly qualitative, highly participative, and very worthwhile activity. One model of strategic planning involves a four-phase planning framework. Relationships are established between elements of the planning cycle, time frame orientation, and level of organizational and individual accountability. Strategic planning can provide clear qualitative and quantitative data, effective direction, and meaningful measures of progress for educational organizations to use in determining their success and in meeting the challenges of the increasingly competitive environment of the future (Aauthor/KC)