This paper, prepared for a National Institute of Education conference on state governance issues in education, reviews the most important recent research on the role of the executive branch in state education policy-making and implementation. The literature review is divided into five categories: (1) input/output studies; (2) policy-making studies; (3) policy implementation studies; (4) studies of the cumulative impact of state policy; and (5) an analysis of methodological issues. The paper recommends additional research on a broader spectrum of the states, on executive agencies other than state education agencies (SEAs) and on the inner workings and lower levels of SEAs. It also emphasizes a focus on specific policies, people, and process to learn more about the dynamics of policy-making. As a higher priority, the paper suggests research on the implementation of specific policies, focusing on how and why they work in practice, on local capacity, and on strategies used by SEAs to influence local activities. As the highest priority, the paper suggests a focus on the cumulative impact of state policies on the schools, looking for both direct and indirect effects, and for models of state-local relations. (Author)