The Rand Corporation, under contract with HEW, developed a research agenda for an emerging data base: The National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of the High School Class of 1972. The study had four main objectives: (1) to identify ways in which public decisionmakers can apply NLS data to key policy issues; (2) to foster the efficient use of a large and expanding longitudinal data base by researchers in numerous disciplines; (3) to recommend certain key studies in advance of foreseeable national problems; and (4) to identify research opportunities that alternative future directions of the NLS would open up. The agenda identified a broad array of policy issues suitable for research with the NLS. Research topics were clustered that involve closely related aspects of behavior into research domains pertaining to the attainment of economic self-sufficiency, higher education, and the circumstances of personal and family life. The ten high-priority studies singled out were: (1) influence of the secondary school; (2) migration and job search; (3) attitudes and career success; (4) segmented labor markets; (5) evolution of career objectives; (6) nontraditional attendance patterns in postsecondary education; (7) persistence and transition patterns of college parallel students in two-year colleges; (8) development of career aspirations and orientations among young women; (9) consequences of early parenthood; and (10) near-term marital stability. (RC)