The success of educational expansion can be seen in the decline in illiteracy rates, improved achievement scores, more years of teacher training, innovative curricula development, and in the greater independence and openness of young people. Despite such positive trends, a crisis in confidence in our system, stemming from the great expenditure in education with less easily perceived results, is a reality. Perhaps efficiency by itself is not an appropriate criteria for measuring a service agency and should be associated with other, social goals in establishing any real criteria for success. Inequality of opportunity, lack of adaptibility and accountability are still the imminent social concerns of our educational system. Suggestions for overcoming these problems, however, usually concentrate on production. Priorities for the 70's should include a maintenance of the production goals of the 60's but also the provision for alternatives in schooling, among which parents and students may make intelligent choices, and a renewal and expansion of the apprenticeship tradition in education. The aim of the National Institute of Education for the 70's is to serve the practical needs of the local "consumers" of educational improvements, with emphasis on the establishment of renewal centers to serve as gathering and disseminating points for those concerned with education. (JH)