The study examines selected characteristics of the innovator, the innovation, and the school system as related to attempts at educational innovation through ESEA Title III proposals in 1966 in Massachusetts. An attempt is made to identify those characteristics, associated with successful institutionalization, in the hope of indicating implications for future innovative efforts. All 138 ESEA Title III proposals submitted in the state in 1966 provide the sample for this study. Questionnaires were sent to the superintendents of school systems that submitted proposals. The study compared data from 69 responding communities that submitted 101 proposals for educational innovations. The data indicated a significant difference between institutionalized proposals and proposals that were not adopted locally on only one factor. That factor was the number of categories of people participating in the development of the original proposal: participation of more categories of people was positively associated with the institutionalization of the innovation. (Author/MLF)