School improvement without will and moral purpose--without a genuine commitment to all students--is an empty exercise in compliance that, in the authors' experience, can do more harm than good. The authors have seen educators use data to "more accurately" track students, further widening the opportunity-to-learn gap. In response to achievement…

Interest in strengthening the impact and value of education research has been growing around the world. Here I outline a view of the nature of "impact" and point to instances where research has had a positive impact in education, but always within a larger social and political framework. A three element "model" of research impact is developed and…

Reviews the research on the role, importance, and impact of the federal technical report literature, and summarizes some ambiguities and gaps in the research. Different approaches to conceptual and methodological issues are discussed, and a typology of technical reports is provided. (38 notes with references) (Author/CLB)

A study examined the distribution, use, and impact of vocational education research and development (R&D) products developed with Federal monies during fiscal years 1981 and 1982. Distribution data for the study were obtained from responses to questionnaires from 22 of the 32 states with products accepted by the Educational Resources…

Reviews recent and current research and development projects in the United Kingdom dealing with online information systems. Main areas of research (systems design, impact on user behavior and organizational structure, ergonomics and bibliographic factors) and research techniques (features analysis, transaction log analysis, surveys and comparative…

The effectiveness of four technical assistance-oriented services/products of one regional educational laboratory was studied. The services/products studied included a thinking skills activities workbook for classroom teachers, a videotape for rural educators on exemplary software for developing the thinking skills of at-risk students, a research…

The research division of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education received a 5-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a research program on youth employability. To increase the use of the research findings, the National Center created the Knowledge Development and Utilization (KDU) project in 1983 as part of…

Describes the design and operation of a prototype online catalog; reviews research which evaluated the system in terms of types of searches and success rates; and offers suggestions for enhancing subject access, including automatic stemming, synonym tables and cross-reference lists, and relevance feedback mechanisms. (CLB)