This guide argues for the implementation of Reading Recovery in schools because it: serves high-risk children and diminishes their numbers; is curriculum independent and provides equally for diverse populations; delivers a high level of teacher training without removing teachers from their work; provides built-in coaching and evaluation within the host district; ties program evaluation, teacher evaluation, and training evaluation directly to student performance; involves cooperation among the university, state, and school levels of education; and enables teachers to be accountable observers of children and consistent designers of curriculum. The guide provides information and ideas for designing projects and plans to impact literacy, and was developed to strengthen the decision-making process for schools and districts. It provides a basic research base for making decisions in eight common areas of schoolwide planning. In outlining these eight common areas, the guide summarizes the criteria used by schools achieving high literacy levels and includes graphics which have been successfully used by other schoolwide planning teams. Final pages of the guide include sample schoolwide plans and several models of Reading Recovery implementation. (NKA)