To give an overview of the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program, this report summarizes the program's goals, structure, and evaluation study and discusses the educational policy issues the program seeks to answer. Designed to enhance local school improvement efforts in the areas of basic skills and…

An alternative model, the Program of Research and Evaluation for Public Schools (PREPS), provides specialized educational services to local public schools. PREPS is funded directly by member school districts with additional funds from Mississippi State University. This sponsorship allows each member school to select, design, and conduct research…

This report by a National Task Force of the Teacher Corps provides charts, tables, and analysis of two distinct facets of previous analysis of the work of the Teacher Corps. The first is a detailed consideration of the availability and use of technical resources. Included are considerations of the purposes for providing technical resources;…

Research on the utilizations of evaluations was based on a followup of 20 Federal health program evaluations to assess the degree to which the evaluations had been used and to identify the factors that affected varying degrees of utilization. Interviews were conducted with project officers or people they identified as decisionmakers who would…

The Department of Teaching and Learning of Peabody College of Vanderbilt University developed a project to strengthen field experiences for elementary/early childhood teacher education students. The project was designed to use current research to revise the laboratory and practica programs, incorporating technology and simulated classroom…

The problems and opportunities for institutional research in academe as it becomes increasingly policy analytic in activity and orientation are explored. It is suggested that for the 1980s the most viable and dynamic role for institutional research will be in providing leaders in higher education institutions with policy-relevant knowledge in…

This study was designed to determine if the regional educational laboratories funded under Title IV of Public Law 89-10 had accepted the charge to become educational change agents. Thirteen critical variables that describe essential change-agent functions were extracted from pertinent literature to provide the framework for a content analysis of…

The emphasis of this book is on means to meet teacher inservice needs more adequately in a teacher center setting. Process steps for planning and developing inservice programs based in teacher centers are outlined. The role of the central planning committee is crucial to the establishment of a successful teacher center. The responsibilities of…

The State Research Coordination Units (RCU's) are in an optimum position to provide linkage between the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and its users as part of a comprehensive vocational-technical education information dissemination system. Realizing this, the Center for Vocational and Technical Education developed this guide with…

The dilemmas faced by the educational research community generally raise important implications for the new National Institute of Education. Pressing social problems require immediate solution, however, demands for immediate results in the complex problem areas of education may lead to incompletely conceived programs and sloppy scholarship.…