The author outlines the rise of a hard-science model advocated by the Institute for Education Sciences, including the application of research and development approaches to education following the Second World War, and describes the attraction of these hard-science approaches for education policymakers. He notes that in the face of complex and…

A chasm is growing between our rapidly rising aspirations for our educational systems and what schools can routinely accomplish. Education needs an improvement paradigm--one that recognizes the complexity of the work of education and the wide variability in outcomes that our systems currently produce. This article sketches out such a paradigm. It…

This essay briefly describes some of the early AERA presidents who were empiricists, several of them directors of research, and how their work connects with some of the issues of design, measurement, analysis, and interpretation today. Beginning with the first president of AERA, a number of presidents through the late 1940s are highlighted, as…

Valid, scientific research is critical for ascertaining the effects of instructional techniques on learners with disabilities and for guiding effective special education practice and policy. Researchers in fields such as psychology and medicine have identified serious and widespread shortcomings in their research literatures related to replication…

The best available evidence is one of the three critical features of evidence-based practice. Best available evidence is often considered to be synonymous with extremely high standards for research methodology. However, this notion may limit the scope and impact of evidence based practice to those educational decisions on which high quality…

Most assessment arguments are about measurement. When is it better to use direct versus indirect measures of student learning? Is one standardized test of critical thinking better than another? Is applying rubrics to student work better than using standardized tests? How valid are self-reported measures of learning? Although these arguments are…

The evidence-based practice (EBP) movement has the potential to significantly advance the quality of psychological and educational services provided by psychologists working in schools. Training psychologists in EBP has challenged the profession and caused faculty in graduate programs to reevaluate and retool professional training curricula and…

Traces some of the important changes in Extension in the past 35 years. Examines and compares four long-range evaluations of Extension: (1) Joint Committee Report on Extension Programs, Policies, and Goals (1948), (2) A Statement of Scope and Responsibility (1958), (3) A People and a Spirit (1968), and (4) Extension in the 80s (1983). (JOW)

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.)

It is not likely that the schools as presently organized and conducted and with the prevailing model of change employed for their improvement can be redesigned to meet satisfactorily the wide and varied range of expectations for them. The schools are suffering from a confusing array of expectations and a crippling overload of functions. Our…

Organized on the premise that present educational research is not meeting the expectations of those responsible for educational policies and practices, this book reflects the thinking of seventeen eminent educationalists who have critically examined the existing arrangements for organizing and carrying out research and have offered recommendations…

A study investigated the attitudes of 48 researchers who prepare annual reports for New Zealand's public colleges and universities during a period of substantial change in the reporting process. The analysts felt the reporting changes were driven externally by legislation and internally by institutional administrators and accountants. Responses to…

Feedback is discussed in relation to measuring the change process, a three-step procedure of dialogue, decision-making, and action-taking. Measurement problems resulting from feedback are presented. (AG)

Identifies trends in educational achievement in the 1970s. Presents hypotheses concerning the relationship between research and gains/declines in educational achievement during that period. Discusses a project for individualized learning programs and its theoretical rationale, and describes a research project based on that educational improvement…

Argues that a greatly expanded attention given to futurism in educational institutions and an intensive, systematic use of futures research applied to educational policy making can go a long way toward meeting criticisms that education is backwards looking and resistant to change, and that education tends to develop an in-capacity for future…