Economists agree neither on the means for assessing education's contribution to the growth of productivity in the national economy nor on the role of education in the recent slowdown in productivity growth. Consequently, neither economists nor educators can confidently recommend a set of policies that will clearly lead to increases in education's contribution to productivity growth. In response to this need, the National Institute of Education (NIE) has begun a research program to explore the links between education and productivity, to develop improved methodology for conducting research in the field, and to examine a range of policy alternatives for increasing education's contribution to productivity growth. As a first step in addressing these research problems and policy issues, the NIE has commissioned six papers and plans to hold a conference in 1982 on education's contribution to productivity. Titles of the papers commissioned include "New Research Approaches to Measuring the Impact of Education on Productivity: The Growth Accounting Framework," by Dale Jorgenson; "Guides for the Development of Educational Policy: Equity, Efficiency, and the Measurement of Educational Quality," by W. Lee Hansen; "An Assessment of Existing Approaches to Measuring the Impact of Education on Productivity," by Finis Welch; "The Effects of Education on Productivity through Its Effects on Innovation and Research and Development," by Edwin Mansfield; "Education, Organization Design, and Productivity," by Edward E. Lawler, and "Private and Social Returns to Investment in Education and Implications for Productivity Growth," by Robert H. Haveman and Barbara L. Wolfe. (MN)