This paper describes and explains three needed developments for building a foundation from which knowledge unique to a profession of educational administration can emerge and thus improve school effectiveness. Each needed development is associated with a general need for a shift in the focus of scholarly attention. Researchers need to focus first on practical rather than academic matters, second, on the effect of administrators' actions on student learning, and third, on administrative problems and instances of instructional ineffectiveness. Educational administration can become equivalent to advanced professions, the paper says, by discovering subclasses of the major problem and what changes to make to resolve each subcategory of problems. The document identifies the contributions of practitioners and researchers in generating the requisite knowledge base and explores ways in which such knowledge would promote the professionalization of educational administration. (Author/LD)