Useful assessment outcomes (as manifest through assigned scores) must show reasonable variation across children because it is that variation that presumably defines children's individual differences. Alternatively it is conceivable that some portion of the variability in assessment outcomes does not reflect child differences but rather differences…

This research plan describes a framework for defining and developing the field of rehabilitation sciences and research opportunities for the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) and other agencies funding medical rehabilitation research. The plan addresses the needs of both persons who are involved in habilitation and in…

This document presents the long-range (5-year) plan of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The plan is organized around two key elements; first, a new paradigm of disability that sees disability as a product of the interaction between individual characteristics and the environment, and second, an emerging…

This article describes how the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service (CES) might serve as a model for improving the dissemination of education research and development results. After reviewing the distinctive aspects of each dissemination system, various features of CES are listed that might be replicated and others that…

This paper shows how several of Cook and Gruder's meta-evaluation models have been applied in the national evaluation of Project Follow Through. Participants in the evaluation are identified, their roles are described, and the degree to which these roles map onto the meta-evaluation models is assessed. (Author/BW)

This work has been done as part of the effort to plan the National Institute of Education (NIE). The report, one of a series, describes four different management systems used by the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA, the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Air Force in managing programmatic research and…

This work has been done as part of the effort to plan the National Institute of Education (NIE). The report, one of a series, describes four different methods used by three Federal agencies--the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research--in managing fundamental research. Fundamental research…

This article reviews lessons learned from the agricultural extension model that may apply to the proposed cooperative extension service in education. The agricultural extension model is a user-oriented system linking knowledge producers with other knowledge users. In education, the adopters of innovations may be organizations as well as…

An effort is made to present a model of the R&D process which is comprehensive enough to handle the full range of events and activities which take place within it, including evaluation, and which has compatability at both macrostructural and microstructural levels of analyses. The first part of the paper focuses on the R&D process. An overview is…

The case for an in-depth evaluation of many federal education programs is argued, particularly those providing site-specific information capable of informing program improvement. The reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) offers an opportunity for the U.S. Department of Education to play a leadership role in…

This article argues that the U.S. dissemination system in education is unresponsive to organizational improvement needs, and that development of this bias is exacerbated by political, organizational, and programmatic thrusts in federal agencies. It is suggested that systems in the Netherlands and Denmark could provide useful models for adapting…

The first two papers in this collection introduce both the Research and Development Exchange (RDx) itself and the subsequent contracted papers in this and a companion volume. The first paper discusses the general problems toward which the RDx effort is directed, understandings and assumptions affecting the design of the work, principles guiding…

This volume contains one paper defining the initial operating parameters of the Research and Development Exchange (RDx) and four of a series of papers contracted for the program. The overview paper touches on a variety of topics of continuing concern: the general problems toward which the RDx effort is directed, understandings affecting the design…

The Office of Education, through the Bureau of Research and the Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education, has spent approximately $67 million on research and research related activities, planning projects, and operational programs on the application of computer technology and its use in education. Appendix A lists projects funded through the…

An indepth study was performed to assess the present status of dissemination in the Education Division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, to develop a conceptual framework that would provide a rational base for a dissemination policy, and to recommend an organizational plan for the management of the dissemination activity within…