The field of education is progressively building capacity and tools for producing rigorous research evidence to use in improving educational practice and outcomes. The knowledge base is lacking, however, in explicating the dynamics of research-based decision making and exploring connections between the work of research-practice partnerships and…

The Early Childhood Educator Survey and the Early Childhood Administrator Survey allow users to collect consistent data on the use of child assessments and learning standards in early childhood learning settings. Each survey includes modules on educator/administrator background information, assessment use, and learning standards implementation.…

This case study examined a multi-college community college district in northern California in a primarily rural area, to understand how their practices compared to management best practices designed to improve student success, barriers that may exist in implementing best practices, and how the institution may improve its own practices. The problem…

The purpose of this Committee Print on Effective Schools is to add substance to Congressional deliberation on legislation which addresses school improvement as a priority on the national educational agenda. The report provides the written views of some of the nation's leading educators, who have made important research contributions in the area of…

Research on teaching, learning, and schooling, while extremely helpful, does not translate automatically into prescriptions for change, which requires support, trust, and adaptation rather than inflexible mandates that imply distrust. (CB)

Critics feel education scholarship lacks rigor and a practical focus on achievement, wasting substantial resources. Research on effectiveness of educational reforms is often weak, inconclusive, or simply inadequate, and good scholarship may have little influence on classroom practice. Popular policies often persist despite strong research evidence…

Educational research can serve to improve education in both developed and developing countries. It can be oriented toward increasing knowledge about the educational reality, generating theories, or confirming immediate educational political decisions. Educational research should be an interdisciplinary undertaking; this variety helps to unify…

Without advancing a specific plan for reforming American schooling, this document identifies a number of conditions that must be met for education to be considered adequate. The paper defines an adequate education as one that achieves the social and individual purposes to which it has been addressed. The effects of politics and decentralization on…

This special serial issue is based on the proceedings of an invitational conference on "Next Steps in Inner-City Education" held in Racine (Wisconsin) in October 1995. The three articles in this publication attempt to offer effective and practical recommendations for educational practitioners and policy makers who seek to transform the country's…

An international colloquium, held in Bucharest, Romania, in November, 1980, brought together educational researchers and persons responsible for educational policies and programs. They examined ways and means of making research more relevant to socioeconomic development and of increasing the internal effectiveness of education. Topics of…

This paper addresses the problem of building the capacity for continuous renewal and reform in the educational system. The authors contend that the paradigm of R&D previously used has been too narrow, and that it is based on restrictive assumptions about how to help schools solve problems. They feel that any revised concept of "the…

Seven papers on educational research and educational improvement are presented. Robert Glaser, in the introduction, states that efforts to realize our aspirations for educational change, as well as in the social surroundings and public attitudes that aid school reforms, can be greatly assisted through research. John B. Carroll discusses…

The research on student retention and achievement in England and elsewhere was reviewed to determine what is already known on the topic and what other information needs to be obtained through research studies. The review established that most of research that has been conducted on the topic in England has been undertaken within the college part of…