This issue of Research and Educational Practice Improvement Notes discusses three recent studies on schooling: (1) "Changing Our Schools; The Realities," by Kenneth Tye; (2) "Innovation Up Close: A Field Study in Twelve School Settings," Volume Four of a study conducted by David P. Crandall and associates; and (3)…

Information is the framework connecting technology, leadership, and the common work of education, namely, responsive situational decision making. Decisions are based upon some form of information perceived, taken in, and acted upon. The ways that administrators and teachers process information is the variable associated with effective educational…

A pilot study was conducted to evaluate selected NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientific and technical information (STI) products. The study, which utilized survey research in the form of a self-administered mail questionnaire, had a two-fold purpose--to gather baseline data on the use and perceived usefulness of selected…

Frequently administrators must spend time producing documents and reports, though theoretically they are supposed to use information to create better educational environments and experiences for students. By using the personal computer as a tool for tasks and analyses that, before the computer, used to take days, administrators will have time to…

This study examines the conceptual and theoretical issues arising from the planned redesign of ERIC (the Educational Resources Information Center) and its potential new roles in the dissemination system. A three-level definition of the ERIC system is provided; the goal of making ERIC a comprehensive dissemination program is refined to one of…

Written in response to a request by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) for information on the extent to which federal agencies are not complying with the clearance provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, this brief narrative report presents the results of an Information Management and Technology Division survey of 90 out of 2,551…

Noting that covering the United States Department of Education can pose special problems for journalists, this report provides information about the operations of the department and notes the strengths and weaknesses of information produced by and about it. The first three sections of the report discuss the current political atmosphere at the…

This preliminary handbook, part of the Chicago Documentation and Technical Assistance Project, has been developed to inform technical assisters about information sources and information utilization procedures that might be useful in their efforts to link educational research with practice. The document is divided into two main sections. Section…

The role of information about education in the development of education around the world is considered in this book. The volume begins by examining the needs of various categories of educators for information, the uses to which such information can be put, the processes and reasons for generating and recording information, and the methods and…

A system for developing public policy indicators would include social, economic, and environmental statistics which would define problems facing a political community. Policy indicator variables center around the broad needs of policy. Any measure of human conditions, including sources outside the basic disciplines, are used; intervals of…

Literature on vocational education research and development (R&D) was reviewed to determine the distribution, utilization, and impact of R&D information and products. The literature indicated both slightly and strongly negative findings on the dissemination of vocational education R&D products. Many of the studies described strategies…

A taxonomy for literature reviews in education and psychology is presented. The increased use of the descriptor "literature review" in ERIC and Psychological Abstracts documents between 1969 and 1983 is cited as creating the need for categorization. The taxonomy categorizes reviews according to focus, goal, perspective, coverage,…

This study examines the specific information-seeking process and the information sources employed by corporate training developers and managers when considering the adoption and implementation of interactive video (tape or disc) as an instructional delivery system. Purposes include the identification of available sources of information on…

This is one of a series of reports based on an ongoing reality test of systemic evaluation for instructional decision making. This feasibility study is being carried out by the Center for the Study of Evaluation with the Laboratory in School and Community Relations at a suburban Los Angeles high school (called Site A). Viewing a school as a…

Several contextual factors were investigated related to the information needs of educational administrators. In a survey of 119 administrators, the following issues were studied: (1) varying preferences for different information sources; (2) the effects on preferences for information sources of different decision or program development tasks; (3)…