Education policy makers must make decisions under uncertainty. Thus, how they think about risks has important implications for resource allocation, interventions, innovation, and the information that is provided to the public. In this policy brief we illustrate how the standard of evidence for making decisions can be quite inconsistently applied,…

The puzzle of how to connect research with policy and practice is a vital area for scientific inquiry. The William T. Grant Foundation believes that attempts to improve the use of research evidence in policy and practice should be subject to rigorous theory building and empirical analysis. The stakes are high for the research community: If we do…

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a form of critical participatory action research that provides young people with opportunities to identify injustices in their current social realities, to gather and analyze data about these phenomena, and to determine actions that will begin to rectify their negative outcomes. A growing body of…

This article sets out to look critically at the use of systematic reviews in the cross-disciplinary field of early childhood and international development. Systematic reviews--a specialist methodology involving the secondary analysis of existing knowledge on a particular topic--is prevalently used to address complex questions in social and…

Structure and organization seems to be at the root of many of the questions raised about institutional behaviour; however, with respect to research on university capacity building, few studies have examined research organizational problems, particularly in developing countries. This study investigates academic reactions to the structure and…

This is an exploration of methodological debates related to ethnographic research. Reflection on conducting research on school choice in an Australian regional centre is the beginning point for a discussion of what Appadurai describes as a dialectical relationship between the neighbourhood and its capacity to exist and reshape itself in relation…

Finding helpful education research often seems an onerous task. However, the federal government and many research organizations are taking steps to give policymakers and practitioners access to useful, readable research. Sidebars list addresses for the research sources cited. (MLF)

A potential solution to a part of the philosophical and methodological problems of defining nonbureaucratic and alternative organization models is the suggestion that a clear, definitional distinction be made between nonbureaucratic models (which are developed using bureaucratic-related variables) and alternative models (which are developed using…

Because activity in the classroom is the primary focus of educational research, and because teachers are critical about the dissemination and implementation of research products, developers must take into account the growth and development of instructional personnel. Educational development is a multidimensional, transactional phenomenon and must…

Educational researchers examining school boards and school governance have commited some conceptual errors in the past. For example, to judge school boards according to traditional political concepts of responsiveness and representativeness is to ignore the insular nature of most boards of education, as well as to fail to take into account the at…

A project conducted in Tennessee from 1984 through 1989, Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (Project STAR), serves as a context for a discussion of educational research. The decisions required in major research projects and the problems in carrying out research are seldom discussed in conferences that present research results as completed efforts.…

Discusses the organization of educational funding sources and its impact on research, emphasizing sources other than the federal government in the philanthropic sector. Explores institutional funding and decision making including internal grants, faculty time, infrastructure, and decision procedures. Outlines problems regarding the organization of…

Based on the premise that the major emphasis in population education should be on the development of problem analysis and values clarification, the manual offers guidelines for program evaluation. It consists of eight chapters. Chapter I discusses the nature of educational research and in-school and out-of-school population programs. Chapter II…

The paper discusses problems faced by policy makers in utilizing social science research in decision making on educational issues and problems. The term social science research is interpreted as including both educational evaluation and educational research. The history of social science research and critical issues associated with social science…

Criticizes the Illinois State Board of Education's study of the effects of school district size on student achievement as a piece of research upon which to base educational policy decisions. Points out specific weaknesses in the research. (FL)