A new first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) has been developed and verified for laminated plates and sandwich plates. Based on the definition of Reissener–Mindlin’s plate theory, the average transverse shear strains, which are constant through the thickness, are improved to vary through the thickness. It is assumed that the displacement and in-plane strain fields of FSDT can approximate, in an average sense, those of three-dimensional theory. Relationship between FSDT and three-dimensional theory has been systematically established in the averaged least-square sense. This relationship provides the closed-form recovering relations for three-dimensional variables expressed in terms of FSDT variables as well as the improved transverse shear strains. This paper makes two main contributions. First an enhanced first-order shear deformation theory (EFSDT) has been developed using an available higher-order plate theory. Second, it is shown that the displacement fields of any higher-order plate theories can be recovered by EFSDT variables. The present approach is applied to an efficient higher-order plate theory. Comparisons of deflection and stresses of the laminated plates and sandwich plates using present theory are made with the original FSDT and three-dimensional exact solutions.