This monograph describes the origins and implementation of a Federal educational program, the Inquiry and Assistance Project (IAP), designed to improve urban public schools through the efforts of researchers and consultants in a research and development setting. The first section provides background information on the IAP study. Section two contains discussions of conceptualization, planning and contracting of IAP staff, and initial problems encountered. An analysis and interpretation of IAP activities, the social milieu that surrounds the organization, as well as its relationship with the Federal Education Department (FED), are discussed in section three. A literature review on public policy and an evaluation of systemic, interactional, and contextual theories concerned with improving urban education make up the fourth section. Appended to the report are an evaluation of a proposal similar to the IAP, a section on methodological and procedural issues, a problem statement, research instruments, and a bibliography. (AOS)