In this essay, the authors discuss what it might take to develop knowledge that can help education policymakers and schools attain their goals. In reading both the research and the current policy environment, the authors identify several fundamental reasons why it is so difficult to develop the knowledge needed to inform policies that might enable standards-based reform to succeed. First is an inadequate conception of the goal of the system and how proficiency should be measured. Second, research shows that the teaching side of the teaching/learning interaction in instruction is crucial. Third is the need to solve the problem of finding real-school settings for conducting multivariate research and, more particularly, development at a scale and duration that will produce usable, proven knowledge, tools, and policies for teaching practice. However, none of these three concerns can be addressed effectively unless those who fund and manage education research take a much more strategic view of what they are doing. By "strategic" the authors mean that funders and managers should focus on the key goals of practice or on particular big problems that seem to impede attainment of those goals.