Although research alliances (RAs) have long been seen as mutualistic and reciprocal, RAs face numerous obstacles navigating stakeholders' differing goals, incentives, and information. This longitudinal, comparative case study of two RAs uses principal-agent theory to analyze these interdependent challenges and their relationship to RA strategy and…

Using congressional testimony on teacher quality from 2003 to 2015 and analysis of 60 elite interviews, we show how the political economy of knowledge production influences idea uptake in education policy discourse. We develop and assess a conceptual framework showing the organizational and financial infrastructure that links research, ideas, and…

A synthesis is presented of the work of Lindblom and Cohen, MacDonald and Walker, and the current authors. The synthesis considers issues in the usefulness of social science theory and research, and how observer roles in qualitative field studies yield multiple kinds of usable knowledge to a variety of audiences. (Author/BW)

Analyzed data from a five-year followup of students in Tennessee's Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project, a four-year large-scale randomized examination of the effects of class size on academic achievement. Results suggest that class-size benefits persist for at least five years and remain large enough to be important to educational…

Reviews Tennessee's Project Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) and puts the results in the context of other nonexperimental evidence about class size. Nonexperimental evidence does not support any achievement gains attributable to class-size reduction, and empirical evidence from STAR has design and implementation flaws that cast doubt on…

Examines the origins of Tennessee's Project Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) and explores what it was about Tennessee in the mid-1980s that fostered the development of this experimental approach to class size. Highlights the connection between the research world and the political world that resulted in the STAR project. (SLD)

Twenty-six congressional staff members dealing with educational legislation were surveyed concerning their sources of information and the relative importance and value of educational inquiry in various stages of the policy process. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations regarding improvement of the process were made. (MH)

In an interview with Albert H. Quie, governor of Minnesota, he gives his opinion about the impact of research studies or educational evaluation on policy decision making in Congress, and the role of Congressional Committee staff members. (MH)

Contract research has increased because of: agencies' time limits; governmental agencies' skepticism about academics' practicality; and a power struggle between government and universities for control of the information production business. Implications of the increase in contract research are discussed and recommendations are made. (MH)