This article has two main theses: (1) Qualitative improvements in education will not come about as a result of rhetoric or superficial proposals for solutions made by the social-activist breed of educator, but rather as a result of a deeper understanding of the teaching-learning process, and the development and use of new and better principles of educational design. (2) Theoretical bases for qualitative improvements in educational design already exist and should be made more readily available to educational researchers. Among the problems considered are: content analysis, performance testing, "far" transfer, learning processes, developmental stages, and instructional methods. These problems are reviewed with respect to the theory of structural learning, and existing or potential theory-based resolutions of these problems are proposed. The paper is organized as follows: (1) a brief review of the recent history of educational psychology; (2) a partial list of open problems in educational design; (3) a summary of some of the more immediately relevant portions of the author's recent theory of structural learning; and (4) a discussion of how these open problems have, could, or might be resolved via the structural learning theory. (Author/CS)