National Institute of Education (NIE) research priorities indicate the use of panel measures only during the time children are in Follow Through programs and further seem to indicate that only implementation variables should be measured. This paper raises questions about the desirability of the narrow focus implied by the NIE priorities, the opportunity costs that may be associated with them, the nature of events that seem to have led to the adoption of the narrow focus, and the validity of some of the assumptions on which the focus seems to be based. The paper is divided into four sections. In the first section, key concepts are defined. In the second, concepts are used to describe the place of the NIE evaluation plans within the overall policy space in which evaluations typically take place. Explanations are offered as to why the plans are as they are now. The third section explores how the priorities in the NIE plans lead to a particular sort of panel study. Through consideration of other sorts of panel studies, suggestions are offered concerning how different questions might have been stressed. In the fourth and final section, conclusions are drawn about how the NIE priorities were established; questions are also raised concerning the possibility of expanding research activities within the scope of Strand 1 of the Follow Through evaluation. (RH)