The past several decades have seen a substantial amount of time, resources, and expertise focused on producing sustainable improvement in schools at scale. Research on these efforts have highlighted how complex this challenge is, as it needs to attend to building teacher support and participation, aligning with the organizational context, and…

In April 2010, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation convened a group of researchers and financial analysts to discuss how to better understand the financing and sustainability of Charter Management Organizations (CMOs). The goals of the meeting were twofold: (1) to suggest a set of common ways…

The Austin Independent School District's Research and Evaluation Office presents practical information concerning observational research. This paper focuses on five topics: (1) what makes a good observer (setting the ground rules, training observers in details, and practice, i.e., involving the observers in planning and providing rigorous…

As a planning and evaluation specialist in a state education agency, the author of this paper understands the types of assistance that researchers can provide the public schools. He argues that local school personnel want practical information that will help solve current problems, and are more frequently concerned with immediate, unexpected…

The Prince George's County Public School District is a multiculturally diverse district in Maryland serving a heterogeneous population of students, most of whom are black (70.3%) and many of whom qualify for free or reduced-price meals (40%). The school system welcomes the opportunity to participate in research projects, but has acknowledged its…

This paper reports on the development and implementation of the quality audit, a methodology designed to help school systems examine their capacity for change using the principles of total quality management as a framework for analysis. Total quality management stresses the importance of continuous improvement of organizational processes,…

This paper traces the role of the classroom teacher in the development of educational research and presents a study surveying funded research conducted by classroom teachers in a number of rural Arkansas school districts. Historically, there has been a lack of reporting of research studies attributed to classroom teachers. Action research is a…

This study evaluated the relationship between site location of and attendance at an organization's annual meeting. It assessed whether participation in the annual meeting increased or decreased in the host state; if participation increases when the meeting is in the home state, whether that participation level is maintained in the following year;…

The importance of theory in qualitative work is discussed through an examination of the search for theory that arose in relation to a case study of educational change in an American school district. Theory is defined as an analytical, interpretive framework to help the researcher make sense of what is going on in the social setting. Certain…

Selected issues in educational research and development are discussed as they relate to local educational agencies and institutions of higher education. Local education agencies are defined as public supported schools (elementary, middle/jr. high and high schools) and institutions of higher education as state supported colleges and universities…

A survey was conducted to identify problems associated with cooperative research projects between universities and local education agencies (school districts); personal and organizational census data were also collected. Sixty-seven research directors from large city schools, 59 researchers in local agencies, and 24 college of education deans…

Describes evaluation experiences in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, School District. Suggests that use of evaluation results can be maximized through a systems approach that involves developing and monitoring different performance indicators, and tailoring educational practice by focusing corrective action on areas where performance is found to be…

Action research in the Cobb County (Georgia) school district is described. This research is being conducted in the district under three main approaches: (1) co-researcher projects addressing central level issues; (2) district-wide projects; and (3) school-focused action research, including minigrants to teachers. The first three…

The symposium from which these papers were taken dealt with the processes and problems involved in developing a fully collaborative relationship among the federal government (specifically, the National Institute of Education), the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Austin, Texas,…

Isolated research conducted by federal agencies or individual researchers is not as effective in implementing educational improvement as a well-integrated program among government, theoretical researchers, and local schools. In order to reduce federal intervention in local school affairs, federal agencies should work cooperatively with…