A study examined (1) how advertising practitioners perceive research related to their profession, (2) how advertising practitioners learn of current research results, and (3) how, if at all, advertising practitioners use research. Individual discussions with advertising practitioners in the San Diego market led to an initial bank of items from…

A report is given of a major study on effective staff development and its role in school improvement efforts. A review of research literature identified key process variables that foster effective staff development activities within successful school or district change efforts. Questions guiding the review of research included: (1) What processes…

The current crisis in the field of comparative education is one of methodology: the quasi-scientific approach, which is widely used and expensively funded, necessarily jettisons a whole range of variables which are not measurable and which may well have more explanatory power. The quantitative studies have not been shown to yield anything which is…

This report offers guidelines for appropriately interpreting and using "teacher effects" research (research linking teacher behavior to student outcomes). Attention is given to the potential uses and abuses of such research, and limitations of the nature and use of scientific data on teacher effects are discussed. Ways that instructional…

To conduct a series of studies and to provide other researchers with texts that may prove useful in answering a variety of questions about perception in reading, it was necessary for two researchers to create pairs of texts that were different in meaning but were physically different in only one letter. These texts were created by first…

One of a series of reports resulting from a Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education project to improve planning and evaluation in community colleges, this report explains how colleges can use census data to assess the characteristics and educational requirements of individuals in their service areas. The report begins with a…

A description of how research and theoretical concepts dealing with poverty-stricken communities were translated into effective social action programs. (EH)

This paper was part of a symposium focusing on the role of educational administrators in school-based research. The author states that the role of research for the school administrator should be to support decision-making, both in providing a rational basis on which decisions can be made and in helping administrators feel confident their decisions…

This paper proposes that the study of schooling would benefit from more research that is social in nature. The characteristics of social research are described in terms of three dimensions--the extent to which "context" and "interaction" of phenomena are considered and the degree to which "participant conceptions" are incorporated in description…

The objectives of the Pennsylvania School Improvement Program (PSIP), funded by the National Institute of Education from 1976 to 1980, were to help schools analyze basic skills needs and improve student performance through the use of research-based programs and techniques. The data uncovered the need to improve instructional management, improve…

Twenty-six American Newspaper Publishers Association research reports published since 1978 are reviewed in this paper. The paper analyzes each of the reports in order to provide an overview of what their findings really say and what newspapers can do in their own market areas to use the findings to improve their product. Among the topics covered…

Reasons for underutilization of social research in public policy-making and the complexity of the concept of utilization are discussed. Among the factors affecting underutilization are the limitations of the social sciences and shortcomings of specific policy research. A common explanation of underutilization is the allegedly long-established…

This document reports on the activities of the Southeastern Teacher Corps Network's 1979 conference on planning for the documentation and follow-up survey of educational conferences. Topics discussed at the meeting include developing the skills and operational procedures for documentation processes in Network organizations, and developing the…

The role of professional associations in providing linkage between educational researchers and educational practicioners is discussed. The difficulties involved in coordinating two essentially discrete and insular educational communities--the research community and the practicing educational community--are described, and an overview of the…

PLANNING IS NEEDED TO BEST UTILIZE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH. EFFORT IS REQUIRED FOR THE MASTERY OF RESEARCH UTILIZATION PROCESSES FOR TWO BASIC POPULATIONS--(1) THE UTILIZATION SPECIALIST SITED IN FIELD SETTINGS AND (2) THE NEW RESEARCHER AS HE MOVES THROUGH HIS GRADUATE TRAINING. THE FOLLOWING RESEARCH-RELATED SPECIALIST ROLES ARE PRESENTLY…