The focus of this book is on the planning of a comprehensive system of staff development and the governance, design, and implementation of specific programs within that system. Much of the book consists of recommendations that are based on the study of a wide range of staff development programs, research on teachers and teaching, information about…

To assess the extent to which the results of implementation studies relating to elementary and secondary schools were generalizable to vocational education contexts, a study of two specific curriculum innovations in vocational education was undertaken in Western Australia. It was designed to yield information about the context of curriculum…

Interactive computer networks, long available to members of the scientific and business communities, now are being introduced by departments and schools of education to enhance and continue the education of teachers. Electronic networking, linking beginners with other beginners and with their former university-based teacher educators, provides a…

The current challenge in distance education is to determine the ways in which research can assist practice in fostering communication. Research in distance education may be broken down into three approaches: (1) practical and descriptive studies that give little attention to conceptual underpinnings; (2) application of conceptual models from…

An assessment of the usefulness of case records in contributing practical information for improved administrator effectiveness, with a focus on the development of performance evaluation criteria, is the purpose of this study. Forty-two case records were classified according to content and outcome, and further classified as successful or…

An analysis of the process by which the results of research and evaluation studies are utilized in the formation of educational policy is the purpose of this paper. Based on a case study of a large urban public school's implementation of a dress code policy, four interrelated factors are identified that affect policy formation and data…

This report presents the findings of a study which assessed the validity of statements made by officials of the Department of Education supporting their policy position that a requirement of native-language teaching be dropped from the current Bilingual Education Act. In response to the officials' claim that research in this area is inconclusive,…

A major focus in all areas of education today is the impact of education on students' ability to use higher order thinking skills. Understanding and improving the knowledge, cognitive abilities, and dispositions that guide, organize, and form effective action in the workplace, home, and community are significant problems for vocational education.…

The San Diego City Schools Research Cooperative is an attempt to integrate the work of practitioners, researchers, and community members to meet the individual needs of each group while providing programmatic, practical research findings to district officials. This paper discusses issues pertaining to the development of a research cooperative: the…

A survey was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) to assess the usefulness of the approach being employed at the college to provide decision makers with institutional research information which involves the large scale distribution of abstracts and/or full research reports to faculty and administrators. Surveys were distributed to all…

The Federal Republic of Germany's educational system became a matter of major national concern in the early 1960's, drawing new attention to the need for educational research. Sociological and economic questions joined the pedagogical and psychological concerns previously central to research; the character of the educational system was added to…

The field of English as a second language (ESL) has developed rapidly in recent years, but some problems have emerged, including overzealous research on language acquisition, disintegration of classroom practices, and dissolution of common goals by the supposedly competing needs of ESL and EFL (English as a foreign language). Currently popular…

Designed to assist in the study of techniques for and approaches to the evaluation of scientific research, this annotated bibliography of publications deals with qualitative and quantitative indicators of the quality of science. Entries are provided in the following categories: (1) bibliometric indicators of the quality of scientific research; (2)…

A study was sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to: (1) document and analyze the information needs of various groups (e.g., the legislature, state agencies, and community colleges) with respect to the state's community colleges and to prepare a matrix of information needs and uses; (2) inventory the…

Three major national longitudinal studies have been conducted in Great Britain, each based on a week's births in, respectively, 1946, 1958, and 1970. This paper focuses on the implications for educators of the findings of the 1958 study, which examined the development, over 23 years, of approximately 5,000 children born in Britain in one week of…