This paper distills from a research conference, arranged by the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), six questions that constitute an agenda for research on private education. Discussed after each of the following proposed questions are some of the past research studies relevant to the question, and the status of research in progress. (1) What organizational phenomena are most powerfully linked, either directly or indirectly, to widely valued pupil outcomes? (2) What can we learn, from studies involving private schools, about the range of feasible school influence on community well-being? (3) What data sources can be developed to make at least some of the special research opportunities in private schools available to scholars? (4) What are the major impediments to the development and perpetuation of private educational options in response to consumer demand, and what are the most promising strategies for limiting, reducing, or eliminating those impediments? (5) What are the circumstances, frequency, and range of existing relationships between public and private educational agencies? What mutual influences are exercised, with what consequences for communities as a whole? (6) How can we best advance our understanding of private schools as entities important in their own right, even apart from what we might learn about the fundamental processes that pervade all schools? (Author/MLF)