The School Reform Assessment (SRA) project began in 1987 with the objective of developing indicators of student coursework that reliably and validly measure this central feature of schooling, while remaining sensitive to major policy changes and the information needs of policymakers, and efficiently collecting and reporting data. This paper describes the major research and policy positions that shaped the SRA project and then outlines the effort to meet those research and policy requirements in the study design. Because data collection was not complete, results of the study are not reported, but some of the lessons of indicator development learned along the way are discussed. The first section of the paper summarizes the major dimensions that curriculum research has identified as important in the development of indicators. The second section examines features of policy-relevant indicators. The third describes the current status of coursework indicators. A final section outlines the SRA project design. A 22-item list of references is included. (SLD)