A clear and present need exists for research in schools leading to defensible, reliable objective data for decision-making, as opposed to research on schools, which is generally limited to experimental methodology leading to "general truths." Reasons for an increasing need for in-school research are: (1) an increasingly sophisticated public demand for data generated from operational research; (2) an increasingly tight fiscal situation, requiring decision-making based on hard, operational data; (3) the demand by teachers for research and evaluations of effectiveness of inclass innovations they initiate. If the university-based research community is to collaborate in fulfilling this need, it must support a number of changes in the present system including: (1) reallocation of federal research monies toward in-school research conducted by university-based researchers in collaboration with local school personnel on school-generated topics; (2) development of a communications network linking all facets of in-school research; (3) development of means to translate theoretical educational research into functionally applicable terms; and (4) provision of school administrator and board member inservice training programs in techniques for utilizing research results. Prospects for the establishment of an effective in-school research effort seem bleak, but the need exists, the task is there. It remains to develop the delivery vehicle for fulfilling those needs. (MB)