To date, little or no data is available about the effect of intra- or extra-institutional variables on individual or institutional productivity in educational research and development (R & D) settings. The Research on Institutions of Teacher Education (RITE) project was done to study knowledge production (R & D) and knowledge utilization activities in a national population of schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDEs). Insofar as the indicators of productivity employed in the RITE study reflect important output of the R and D community in education, SCDEs and universities, including university-based R and D centers, are major contributors to the knowledge base in education and to communication with educational practitioners. However, although SCDEs compete well with other educational agencies, individual faculty productivity is disappointing. (In the concluding half of this paper, the author presents a number of contextual factors and conditions in SCDEs explaining some of the individual and institutional variances in R and D productivity. He uses the data to suggest, by analog, factors which might affect productivity in other educational organizations engaged in R and D activity, especially university-based R and D centers. The author's answers to seven questions asked by the audience of vocational education research and development personnel are attached.) (EM)