The status of recent research on staff development and inservice education for teachers, administrators, and other school personnel was reviewed in studies completed between 1977 and 1984. More than 400 articles from 23 professional journals and 507 doctoral dissertations were analyzed. For each study, the research design and procedures, purposes and objectives, and major findings were determined. Methodologically, the research is heavily based on descriptive surveys of the desired content and procedures for the delivery of staff development and inservice, as described by survey respondents. Most research is not theoretical and tends to make use of only one data-collection technique, the questionnaire. Substantively, as determined through responses to the descriptive surveys, the skills sought most frequently by professional educators are knowledge-level skills. A research agenda, based on gaps found in existing studies, suggests that future research should (1) engage in the synthesis of some of what is already known about the nature of effective training design; (2) carry out continuous review and modification of a theoretical conceptualization of effective staff development and inservice education; and (3) define what is the ultimate goal of any training and learning experience. (MLF)