Two Research Memoranda, numbers 15 and 16, are contained in this volume. (The general nature of the memoranda are described and related documents listed in SO 005 892). The first essay by Daniel E. Costello, entitled "Communication, Knowledge and the Educator as a Problem-Namer", views the problem of knowledge formation and utilization within…

This report contains a summary of research done at Alfred P. Sloan School of Management to study the information requirements associated with research and development activity under the headings: parallel projects, laboratory communication networks, characteristic costs of information channels, and interorganizational transfer of information.…

As part of an effort to facilitate local problem solving in urban public schools, the Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA) is concerned with clarifying the relationship, or linkage, between research and practice. This paper describes that linkage, which includes two related components: the "definition" of some research…

Principal-preparation programs require students to take research courses; however, principals are often unprepared to apply research skills in school settings. This paper discusses approaches to using data for decision making in a site-managed school. It describes one high school's efforts to apply research and recommends that…

Research, evaluation, and policy analysis are elements of inquiry whose functions, aims, purposes, intended audiences, and intended outcomes have been confused in the literature discussing how to accomplish them. Using the definition of "disciplined inquiry" provided by Cronbach and Suppes (1969), which defines disciplined inquiry as the…

Discussion of the decision-making role of the librarian covers pertinent planning activities, i.e., systematically analyzing problem, reviewing literature, gathering and analyzing data, and assessing positive aspects of implementing new knowledge so gained. Knowledge of the research process, replicating research, and assuming the responsibility of…

This paper presents two models, one for organizing institutional research and research data, and the other for applying research findings to the decision-making process. The model for organizing research consists of four subsystems: goal-setting, program development, cost-effectiveness, and program review. Each subsystem has a distinctive…

Research on the utilizations of evaluations was based on a followup of 20 Federal health program evaluations to assess the degree to which the evaluations had been used and to identify the factors that affected varying degrees of utilization. Interviews were conducted with project officers or people they identified as decisionmakers who would…

Despite the development of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), strategies for bringing the capacities of educational research and development to local educational agencies have been largely ignored. This report suggests the need for "linking" strategies to bridge the gap, and proposes how they might be implemented.…

This presentation discusses the products the South Carolina Department of Education derives from that State's management information system and traces the processes used to deliver those products to local school districts. Emphasis is on a description of the technical assistance the State department of education provides the local school district…

Investigators from seven universities and the National Training Laboratories cooperated in a research project to help 15 school systems improve their effectiveness. Utilizing questionnaire response data from approximately 5,000 adults and 6,000 fifth and 11th grade students, the project analyzed problems of planned change in schools, evaluated the…

The State Research Coordination Units (RCU's) are in an optimum position to provide linkage between the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and its users as part of a comprehensive vocational-technical education information dissemination system. Realizing this, the Center for Vocational and Technical Education developed this guide with…

The dilemmas faced by the educational research community generally raise important implications for the new National Institute of Education. Pressing social problems require immediate solution, however, demands for immediate results in the complex problem areas of education may lead to incompletely conceived programs and sloppy scholarship.…

A problem in the building industry is the lack of coordination of research efforts and the time lag between the completion of research and the incorporation of the results in practice. A partial solution is attempted in this survey of current and past research dealing with innovation and other problems in the building industry and related…

The purpose of this chapter is to present a view of the realities facing those playing linking roles and to give direction to renewed efforts to develop training and support mechanisms for linking agents. The first section of the chapter presents the assumptions underlying the paper. The second consists of four principal subsections. The first…