A study examined the impact of the "Closing the Achievement Gap" (CAG schools) program on the academic achievement of students in 30 schools serving high percentages of African American and economically disadvantaged students in West Virginia (WV), 2004-2008. The program assigned experienced educators, "CAG liaisons", to the…

Aimed at persons planning and implementing strategies for documenting school improvements, this paper is comprised of four sections. The first section distinguishes between national problems in education and federal issues in education (a distinction considered necessary for planning evaluations and establishing priorities for federally sponsored…

Using a framework that draws upon current organizational theory and assumptions about knowledge utilization and school improvement this report examines the process of change at the school level. The model developed attempts both to categorize the "strategies" employed by the Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program/projects and…

Based on two papers presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in 1981, this report provides an overview and major outcomes of a three-year study of the Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program. The RDU program tested and assessed a comprehensive model for assisting schools to use results of educational research…

National Science Foundation reports provided criteria for identifying 54 exemplary science programs in the United States. Questionnaires and school visits showed programs characterized by locally developed curricula, less emphasis on textbooks, and outstanding teachers (average age: 51 years; degree: M.A. 30). (PB)

The District Facilitator Project (DFP) works through the National Diffusion Network (NDN) to assist local schools in improving their programs by linking them with exemplary projects from around the country. Evaluation of the project in operation in the District of Columbia public schools in 1982-83 showed that all the project's objectives were…

The reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA") as amended by the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB") relied on two notable policy instruments to improve education: accountability and flexibility. "NCLB" complements accountability with several new flexibility…

The Wabash Valley Supplementary Educational Center, the organization and activities of which are described in this report, is one of several multidistrict, multifunctional supplementary centers in the state of Indiana. Unique in that a university has contracted its operation, the Center has a two-fold purpose: (1) to provide educational services…

The Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program research component examines the successes and administrative dilemmas faced by demonstration projects that attempted to develop interorganizational networks in a knowledge utilization and school improvement process. A framework is presented for looking at RDU projects as a group of…

This paper describes a project undertaken to legitimize the role of affective education in the development of the "whole" child. The two major objectives of Project Self are: (1) to gain acceptance of the study of one's self as a legitimate subject matter for students and teachers so that self-study curriculum and techniques will be accepted as…

Project EXCEL, a community educational leadership demonstration project sponsored by the National Council of La Raza and its over 123 affiliated community-based organizations, is a major educational initiative to improve the educational attainment of Hispanic Americans by working with local communities to develop and demonstrate effective…

An essential task for the 1973-74 project was to expand and refine the totally integrated career education curriculum, K-12, in the Bowling Green, Kentucky school system. Called Project PEOPLE, it provided a teaching strategy that was student and teacher-oriented, with emphasis given to the development of self-awareness and exploration activities.…

Flexibility and accountability are two levers for change that occupy an increasingly prominent place among federal strategies for educational improvement. In return for introducing higher academic standards and performance-based accountability systems, states and districts have been granted increasing flexibility over how they may use the funding…

These technical appendices are bound separately from the report "Strategies for Knowledge Use and School Improvement" which evaluates the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program. Appendix A contains a preliminary report on the statistical quality of the quantitative data, focusing primarily on…

Forty-eight projects funded by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title III, and providing the funds to public school districts to demonstrate the feasibility of educational innovations, are the focus of this inventory of ESEA Title III projects for the State of Delaware, fiscal year 1974. Sixteen operating projects are described in Part I…