As part of the National Institute of Education's Teaching and Instruction Program, the Research on Instruction Team has developed a program focusing on research on Instructionally Effective Schools. Such a school is defined as having a high mean level of student achievement and no educationally significant differences between different racial, ethnic, and social-class groups of students. This document presents the factors that support this particular emphasis for the program, summarizes the state of knowledge, and outlines proposed research. The section on the current state of knowledge presents the argument that school effectiveness is determined by school-level, classroom-level, and student factors and by the interconnections among the three. The discussion first describes the current knowledge base regarding effective instructional practices at the classroom and school levels; then it critiques this knowledge base and, in the process, identifies issues for future research. Ten proposed research projects are briefly described. Relevant educational projects at research laboratories and centers are described and their contributions to the issues discussed are identified. (Author/MLF)