Linking research to a compelling societal interest can build financial commitments to research, bring increased attention to findings, and grow support for scaling up impacts. Among many compelling societal interests that learning scientists can cite--such as increasing the quality of life, preparing citizens to make decisions in a complex world,…

The history of performance indicators for evaluation of institutions of higher education in the United States and Europe is chronicled to provide a context for understanding the definitions and methods used to develop them. Performance indicators are defined and described in relation to other measures used for assessment of institutions, drawing…

More than 40 leaders from business, government, and academia gathered for a 2-day symposium to focus on the social impact of new communications and information technologies and the extent to which the ways they are being used is decided as a matter of deliberate human choice, and how much by the influence of biased capabilities inherent in the…

The United States influenced the origins, elaboration, and implementation of the politics of knowledge between social science and policy in the South African National Bureau for Educational and Social Research. Divided into six sections, the historical analysis of the Bureau: (1) examined the context within which the Bureau emerged, the origins of…

This anthology of sociolinguistic/anthropologically-oriented articles on ethnic bilingualism and bilingual education seeks to understand bilingual education outside of the methodological-pedagogical issues involved, that is, from a theory and research, rather than classroom, perspective. Bilingual education is seen as the result of societal…

Costa Rican education, although fairly successful compared to other Third World or Latin American countries, has serious problems needing action, including (1) large discrepancies between educational ideals and the realities of urban privilege, with regard to access and quality, and (2) a rote, narrow, superficial, impractical education. Other…

Efforts focused on improving quality processes based upon the Malcolm Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence may hold promise for fundamentally improving K-12 education. This policy report examines the information available on improving school quality through implementation of the Baldrige criteria. It provides a snapshot of what…

This document contains 11 papers on researching service learning through a multidisciplinary lens. The following papers are included: "Introduction" (Shelley H. Billig, Andrew Furco); "Stretching to Meet the Challenge: Improving the Quality of Research to Improve the Quality of Service-Learning" (Janet Eyler);…