In an auctorate, secondary schools conduct research that contributes directly to the practice of education (www.auctoraat.nl). The Auctorate for Promising Education creates more knowledge and awareness of how secondary education can (continue to) offer learning opportunities to students from different backgrounds. The lecture first explains why applied research is necessary in education and how the auctorate can contribute to this. It then explains why promising education is needed from three perspectives: language-aware, flow-aware, and career-aware education. First, we investigate the role of language as an (un)equalizer. Secondly, we discuss how later selection and promising advancement can contribute to promising education. Finally, we investigate how secondary education can contribute to a focus on a suitable career for pupils in which the upward pressure in education ('the more theoretical, the higher, the better') can decrease.