Community organizing efforts employ different types of research as they seek to address community issues. This chapter details the evolving use of research in a youth organizing effort in San Bernardino, CA that has addressed issues in schools, the educational system, and the broader community. We examine the youth organizers' use of organizing…

One of the purposes of introducing the use of action research in schools is to bring about educational change in policy and practice. To make this happen, it is of paramount importance to look into how teachers actually see action research. We, the writers of this paper, are teacher educators, teaching preschool teachers courses related to action…

This qualitative action research study examined teachers' perceptions of leadership, research-based practices, and experience. I investigated how these three factors influenced the culture and change process at one suburban high school in order to better understand the context and to ultimately use the knowledge gained to improve the culture…

Action research involves researchers and practitioners in collaborative projects and provides a means of integrating evaluation into the reform process. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

This book highlights the use of research and other forms of knowledge for meaningful school reform by faculties engaged in the National Education Association's "Mastery in Learning Project" (MIL). This project is a school-based education reform initiative designed to help school faculties take an active role in directing school renewal…

This chapter describes how an action research framework facilitates using evaluation and assessment results to improve programs and demonstrate institutional effectiveness. (Contains 1 table.)

Research adaptation is an endeavor that implies solid collaboration among school practitioners and university and college researchers. This volume addresses the broad issues of research as an educational endeavor, adaptation as a necessary function associated with applying research findings to school situations, and change as an inevitable…

This issue presents two articles on the use of data to improve results for students with disabilities. The first paper examines how researchers supported by the Office of Special Education Programs are discovering innovative uses of scientifically derived information in instructional and administrative decision making as well as strategies for…

A curriculum project is described which illustrates the use of collaborative inquiry, a cooperative effort between university researchers and educational practitioners. Four tenets of collaborative inquiry are outlined. (1) Researchers and school practitioners work together on all phases of the effort. (2) The effort is focused on real world as…

This document contains 95 papers and summaries of 5 poster sessions from an Australian conference on putting vocational education and training (VET) research to work. The following are among the areas covered in the papers: factors affecting VET graduates' employability over time; technical and further education (TAFE) institutes as models of…