Expectations that international efforts to promote education would lead to widespread economic development faltered in the late 1970's as educational theorists became increasingly aware of the realities of inadequate resources, underestimated self-interest among the economically and politically powerful, and incompletely comprehended relationships among education, development, economic capacity, and cultural attitudes. Early interests in achieving equity have waned, national and international resources for social improvement have shrunk, and efforts at decentralization of planning and policymaking have been revealed in many instances as cosmetic at best. Rather than fall into cynicism, however, leaders and policymskers can take advantage of recent developments to begin a more realistic effort to encourage educational and economic improvement. These developments include new understanding of linkages between education and other social conditions, promising results from nontraditional experiments in linking education and economic development, continued demand for education among Third World populations, and improved awareness of the inadequacies of research once assumed to have global application. By following the lead of these developments, an activist agenda can be implemented, based on practice rather than theory. (PGD)