Although data driven-decision making has been the mantra of school reform for the last 10 years, school leaders benefit from frequent discussions in how to engage teachers in the process. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to apply Reeves' (2004) framework concerning Antecedents of Excellence in creating a school culture that routinely uses…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

This report examines the role of implementation centers as a vehicle for speeding the use of solar energy and energy conservation. It covers a study of previous building industry innovations; a brief review of the diffusion of innovation literature, including several case studies; identification of the solar thermal application process and…

An evaluator-manager interaction model is developed for predicting the impact of evaluation and research findings. Instruments are developed for measuring the variables of interpersonal involvement, impact of evaluation, and managerial style in the relationship between evaluator and manager. The hypothesis advanced suggests that evaluators can…

This report describes a four-day institute funded by the U.S. Office of Education to increase the utilization of government publications by extending the knowledge of academic reference librarians about them. Librarians from 25 universities attended the institute. Discussion of the use of government publications was divided into three broad…

Steps taken by a university to develop a successful and meaningful inservice teacher education program for public school teachers are described. Development of this program involves cooperative effort from several different sources. Faculty members, as part of their teaching load, are assigned to educational support teams that help school…

The concept of knowledge utilization and the nature of practical decisions are analyzed to investigate how research knowledge and effective teaching practice are related. It is argued that the personal commitments of teachers, common sense, and normative requirements can also be valid bases for action. The author points out that an over-reliance…

The Australian Council for Educational Research and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research together developed an information dissemination package entitled "SET: Research Information for Teachers." This package consists of articles written in journalistic style that convey information concerning recent research in education to…

Part 1 of a two-part series, this volume presents three separate policy studies done using a contextual research, development, and innovation (RD & I) analysis framework developed by the authors. The studies are intended to demonstrate the requirements and possibilities for policy analysis in the RD & I arena and the utility of the…

Using the 1995 National Research Council ratings of doctoral programs in 41 fields, a statistical methodology is offered for assessing how measures of program size, faculty seniority, faculty research productivity, and faculty productivity in producing doctoral degrees influenced raters' decisions. Then using data for one field, economics,…

This document researched the utilization of SET: Research Information for Teachers, a package of articles presenting a smorgasbord of educational research information. Five case studies in New Zealand schools were presented; five institutional visits were described. The purpose of the school visits was to investigate what happened to SET…

Use of student focus groups to help shape college and university student recruitment efforts is examined, illustrated with the experiences of a variety of institutions. Benefits and limitations of the approach are noted, specific techniques for maximizing the groups' effectiveness are suggested, and uses of the resulting information are discussed.…

This interim report analyzes the dissemination and impact of "SET: Research Information for Teachers," a package of articles presenting educational research findings in a journalistic style for distribution to Australian and New Zealand schools and teachers. The report consists of four sections. The first section reviews recent…

To predict and improve licensure examination results, Tennessee Technological University's nursing school has investigated the use of existing student outcomes information (licensing exam scores and grades) as a basis for curricular and individual student improvement. The strategy has helped to identify specific areas for enhancement. (MSE)

The Northwest Connection was designed as a "peer interaction" model for communicating and disseminating career education in the five northwestern states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. (A detailed description of Northwest Connection activities, with key problems and decisions highlighted, may be found in "People…