Written in response to a paper by Wayne K. Hoy on theory and practice in educational administration, this paper maintains that research and practice must be coordinated if educational administration is to progress. The author outlines Hoy's key points, agreeing with many but taking issue with Hoy's central thesis, which the author perceives as being that any effort to do research in an attempt to solve a practical problem is unscientific. The author disagrees particularly with the notion that scientific research in educational administration ought not to have practical application. He contends that neither an empirical nor a phenomenological approach is sufficient but that it is the explanatory model based on both the operational and representational models that is at the heart of theory development. (Author/JM)