National Science Foundation's (NSF's) MSP Program seeks foremost "to improve student outcomes in high-quality mathematics and science by all students, at all pre-K-12 levels". The MSP Program, consisting of a portfolio of funded projects, in part positions itself as a research and development (R&D) program. This study has addressed the need to assess how well the R&D function is working, beyond the program's possible impact on existing pre-K-12 systems. The study discusses and enumerates discoveries and innovations in education and other fields. In so doing, the study suggests four types of discovery and innovation that can be monitored as part of an assessment of the MSP Program: uncovering, inventing, explaining, and substantiating. The study concludes that the needed R&D assessment can occur by monitoring the funded projects for their formal presentations and publications for evidence of these four types of discovery and innovation. (Contains 1 table.)