Pure research in school law is not possible, since the researcher must rely on inquiry that can be verified by experience and observation in the field. The studies produced in the past year tend to fall into the following classes: compliance, accountability, impact, cost-effectiveness, Supreme Court decisions, and the process by which minority law eventually becomes legitimized as majority law in the form of national policy. The studies are widely scattered through the literature, of uncertain quality, tending toward subjectivity at times, accepted on the reputation of the researcher, and ungoverned by a comprehensive categorization scheme. Accordingly, a broader system for categorizing educational legal issues over time is proposed, a workable model called historical-legal research. One dimension is a three-step process by which, for example, a minority viewpoint is transformed into enabling law and becomes national policy, while the other dimension consists of the five major revolutions affecting the schools in the modern era: religious, political, economic, technological, and civil rights. The grid enables researches to plot the progress of any particular legal issue over time from its inception to its general acceptance as "settled, indisputable law." (TE)