In the fall of 1995 the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) held a conference to stimulate dialogue about future developments in the fields of education, statistical methodology, and technology and the implications of these developments for the nation's education statistics program. This paper summarizes and synthesizes the results of this conference and a study the NCES undertook to clarify its responsibilities over the next decade. An introductory section provides a synopsis of the major themes and conclusions from the conference and its commissioned papers. The second section describes the current foundation of the NCES, outlining its core functions, operating principles, and program. The third section summarizes some new directions that the NCES could pursue to provide information for policy, research, and practice in American education and addresses some important methodological and technological opportunities. A concluding section affirms that the most fundamental change the NCES must make is to emerge as a provider of information services and systems rather than a primary collector and provider of data per se. Data collection that occurs independently of front-line administrative and teaching systems is likely to diminish in the future. An outline of the conference agenda is presented. (Contains five graphs and six references.) (SLD)