Educational research and development (educational R&D), more recently called educational knowledge production and utilization, has become a prominent feature of the educational scene with many of its salient characteristics having taken shape during the last ten years. The federal role in educational R&D began in 1867 with the formation of the National Department of Education. The passage of the Cooperative Research Act of 1954, the National Defense Education Act of 1958, and the creation of the National Institute of Education in 1972 expressed federal concern for stepping up efforts to improve the educational system. Although funds have decreased during the last decade, educational R&D laboratories and centers have prospered. One benefit gained recently from educational R&D is that the monolithic structure of the school system is giving way to a greater recognintion of differences among individuals. In general, the effects of educational R&D upon educational practice have been disappointing because the effort has been too small, the trained researchers too few, and the resources too limited. An 11-point agenda for educational R&D during the next decade includes: (1) building a constituency; (2) broadening the collegial base; (3) strengthening all parts of the educational R&D enterprise; (4) recognizing that education is a total system; (5) shifting emphasis from correlational studies and single-variable experimental studies to more complex experimental studies, interventions, and clinical analyses; (6) making more modest claims; (7) building a better national educational R&D agenda; (8) effectively advancing the interdisciplinary claims of educational R&D; (9) strengthening university participation in educational R&D; (10) increasing attention to cost/benefit consideration; (11) reestablishing the upward trend of expenditures for educational R&D. (SK)