Low- and middle-income countries around the world face a profound educational challenge. At stake in meeting this challenge is their ability to participate effectively in an increasingly interdependent global economy, society, and polity, and to meet many other goals set out in the International Declaration of Human Rights. Turning the current challenge into an important opportunity will, by definition, require significant improvements in the productivity of national education systems. Productivity changes on this scale require innovations at all three levels of the national systems: micro (classroom pedagogy), meso (school and district management), and macro (national politics and policy) levels. This paper sets out principles for designing a process initiated and supported at the national level that can animate, guide, and evaluate the varied innovations that will help national government meet their educational goals along a path that supports their economic, social, and political goals as well.