Regional laboratories have been charged with serving as the link between so-called educational "research" and educational "practice," a link loosely known as "development." Research generates development and development generates research, with both leading to continued reduction of uncertainty, i.e., effort is allocated to different "uncertainty reducing possibilities" as development proceeds and knowledge accumulates. Activities in any product-oriented organization should be conducted according to certain basic assumptions: (1) The solution to a problem should be sought within the context of the problem. (2) The solutions to educational problems will be necessarily complex and many-faceted. (3) A successful solution requires the presence of certain essential conditions including people who accept the solution and are motivated by its evidence. (4) Precise assessment is fundamental to any R and D program. (5) A profession of educational engineers or developers must be trained. (6) The educational gatekeepers must not be subverted in the performance of their elected or assigned duties. An R and D staff, because it is a group of specialists working together within an independent institution, contributes to its own training and that of others through a climate which provides security, individual identity, and coordination of efforts. (JS)