As Americans strive to reform and restructure schools and design programs that prepare young people for a new century, education policy and practice must be guided by the best that is known about education and all areas of inquiry related to learning, schooling, and young people. The academy suggests ways in which the organization and character of research can be changed to improve its application to policy and practice. Also, the answers to our education problems are found in creating new connections between what is discovered through research and what schools and teachers do in their policies, procedures, and instructional practices. The report presents a national research agenda focusing on five priority areas expected to spark positive changes in schools. These areas include: (1) active learning over the lifespan; (2) assessment; (3) bolstering achievement of historically underserved "minority" and impoverished groups; (4) school organization; and (5) the connection to teachers and teaching. The report provides concrete examples of some of the best research that has been done in the last 20 years, pointing to the major breakthroughs influencing schooling and classroom practice, including cooperative learning, school finance, reading and writing, educating students with disabilities, grade retention, and testing. Examined in detail are the levels and types of funding for educational research. The recommendations for action involve funding and support, quality control, the organization of research, incentives for researchers, and linking research to practitioners. (RR)