In implementing its Behavior Research Initiative, the U.S. Department of Education funded four Behavior Research Centers, each to test the efficacy of a separate intervention to improve the behavior of elementary school students with or at risk for serious behavior problems. The initiative also established the National Behavior Research Coordination Center to conduct a cross-site evaluation of the four behavior interventions. The authors describe how the Department of Education's structuring of the initiative helped avoid many of the shortcomings of earlier federal cross-site demonstration programs and highlight the contributions a research coordination center can make to the quality of research conducted and to the knowledge produced across individual demonstrations. (Contains 2 tables and 5 notes.)