In Canada's Exemplary Schools Project, a national committee designed and coordinated 21 case studies. A committee member recounts decisions made about design and method, and highlights differences between method and methodology, as well as variations in conceptualization of qualitative research. Discusses the meaning of "exemplary,"…

The role of national research councils as buffers between the state and the scientific community is discussed from three perspectives--research councils as part of a stratified, dispersed decision-making structure; a para-governmental organization; and promoting transnationalization of scientific and educational exchange. Pressures and threats on…

The factors that contributed to changes in policy and practice regarding corporal punishment in Scotland's public education system are explored in this paper. An overview of the context and issues traces the links between practitioners and researchers that facilitated acceptance of previously unacceptable constraints, focusing on the role of…

The Panel on Decennial Census Methodology met during the year 1984 to investigate the following technical issues related to the 1990 United States census: (1) adjustment of census counts and characteristics; (2) sampling; and (3) administrative records. A number of recommendations were made. It was suggested that a low priority be given to…

Interactive Research and Development on Teaching (IR&DT) was initially proposed as an alternative to linear educational research and development strategies that often resulted in irrelevant, uninterpretable, time consuming research that did not actively involve teachers. This paper reports on the insights gained from implementing the IR&DT…

This report summarizes a national, invitational seminar to identify and encourage priority research in trade and industrial teacher education and certification. Fifteen nationally recognized leaders in trade and industrial education and three observers from other vocational services met to review relevant research completed to identify and list…

Following a damning report on the state of police probationer training in England and Wales by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, entitled "Training Matters" (2002), the Home Office (2003), as part of its modernisation programme for the police service, decided that what police officers were required to know and learn to execute…

The Independent Study in the Humanities Fellowship program for teachers of grades 9-12 has been sponsored since 1983 by the Council for Basic Education under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The program awards $3,000 fellowships for summer study to outstanding teachers of English, foreign languages, history, and other…

Agriculture and the rural economic bases in mining, fisheries, forestry, and natural resource extraction are experiencing major social and economic changes. The farm and rural crises of the 1980s are not short-term aberrations, but symptoms of long-term trends that were partially hidden by the relatively good times for agriculture and rural areas…

Using examples from the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.), the authors investigate the use of special or expert commissions in government policy-making in education. They analyze such commissions' impacts, the criticisms made of them, their role in political legitimation, and some alternative instruments for policy formation.…

The bulk of this report is a digest of "Coming to Our Senses: The Significance of the Arts in American Education," the 1976 product of the blue ribbon Arts, Education, and Americans Panel chaired by David Rockefeller, Jr. The chapters reproduced here concentrate on what is being done in art education in public elementary and secondary…

This article describes the development of the Head Start Mental Health Research Consortium, a research partnership between the Administration on Children, Youth and Families and the National Institute of Mental Health. The Consortium is designed to assess mental health needs of low-income children and optimal approaches for addressing these needs.…

This is a report of the "European Educational Research Journal" (EERJ) Roundtable that sought to describe what national educational research programmes are doing, how they are working together, and how they might contribute to the developing European Educational Research Space. The Roundtable was an opportunity for one large consortium…

The factors for an effective administrative task force are examined in this report on the Syracuse school superintendent's Issue Analysis Team. The team, composed of voluntary potential administrators, acts as a special task force to facilitate informed decision making by the school superintendent. Topics discussed are member selection, role…

The Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation Division (TAE) of the National Institute of Education was created during a reorganization in 1978. Some of TAE's activities have included: identifying research needs; long-range planning for federally-sponsored evaluation research; reviewing evaluation methodologies; comparing local vs. large national…