This perspective sees the value of the views presented in the volume on "Ethnography and Education" especially in the complementary sets of interests identified for ethnography and education. Some critical problems administrators and teachers face are reviewed and some recent and ongoing research activities designed to alleviate these problems are discussed. School administrators must be sensitive to organizational adaptive change, to changes in external conditions, changes in the internal school structure, and changes in the relationship between the individual and the organization. On the instruction-learning side, newspapers are full of stories about problems with curriculum, methods, and outcomes of education. Educational research can look at what influences these educational outcomes; it can identify some of the important instructional patterns and learning environments that make a difference in student achievement. An immediate need is the creation of a comprehensive plan so that research can be put to use in schools in a manner that reflects schools' goals and the goals of society at large. One approach to such cooperation is a closer collaboration among researchers, developers, school districts, and state educational agencies. Ethnography can help by looking at problems from a different perspective. (AMH)