Principals' support for various approaches to educational planning were examined in rural and suburban schools in Ohio and West Virginia. It was expected that rational approaches to planning would be more prevalent in suburban than rural schools and in a state with more tightly coupled bureaucratic control (West Virginia) than a less tightly coupled state (Ohio). An instrument was developed that reliably measured principals' endorsement of rational and strategic planning ("new technicist planning") and somewhat less reliably measured their support for traditional-consensual planning, incremental planning, organized anarchy, and reactive planning. A mail survey, using the instrument, received responses from 207 West Virginia principals and 441 Ohio principals. Results show that new technicist planning was favored by suburban principals and by West Virginia principals. The traditional-consensual approach was favored by principals in suburban West Virginia and rural Ohio. Only rural West Virginia principals showed somewhat strong support for organized anarchy. Overall, the findings suggest that the particulars of locale (state and locale as they encompass and differentiate prevailing conditions) rather than locale per se (or uniquely) account for differences in principals' approaches to planning. (Contains 24 references.) (SV)