The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the Teacher Followup Survey (TFS) have been administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1987-88, 1990-92, and 1993-95. The SASS is a large-scale survey of educational institutions in the United States. The TFS is conducted the year following the SASS to obtain more information about teachers at the sampled schools. In preparation for the next round of the SASS, the NCES decided to reassess the design of the NCES. This paper reconsiders the goals, foci, and strategies of SASS and continuing and new questionnaire content. A particular concern is the data NCES should collect to inform the educational issues most likely to be of concern in the next 10 to 20 years. The brief answer is that the NCES should continue to collect the data relevant to the fundamental dimensions of public schooling and the dimensions of the teaching force that have been considered in the past. To be prepared for the next decade, the NCES should collect data to quantify the baseline status of schools and their staffs so that changes in issues of interest can be recognized easily. In the past, SASS data have been especially useful for problem definition, evaluation of policies and programs, and also for enlightenment. and for enlightenment. In the future, it is recommended that questionnaires be designed to continue to collect useful data for these purposes and in addition to collect data more useful for evaluation of policies and programs. The following sections are included in the report: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "School Improvement versus School Change"; (3) "The Goals, Foci, and Strategy of SASS: A Reconsideration"; (4) "Dimensions of Schooling Amenable to Policy Intervention"; (5) "Review of Prior SASS Questionnaires"; (6) "Discussion and Recommendations"; and (7) "Summary." (Contains 2 tables and 14 references.) (SLD)