Research and Education Reform Roles for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 RECOMMENDATIONS
5 RECOMMENDATIONS
Pages 135-172
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 135... ...
Authentic and sustained reform requires the confluence of many elements appropriate school organization, improved curricula and pedagogy, more public understanding and community support, better teacher education, supportive policies, and the mobilization of adequate resources. In addition, the contributions of research to practice often have not been direct and predictable; rather they have slowly percolated through established policies and practices.
|
From page 136... ...
-the committee has reached a two-part answer: by strengthening the agency's ability to support and achieve benefits from traditional approaches to R&D and by expanding the agency's functions to encourage establishment of learning communities collaborative relationships between teachers, administrators, and researchers in the pursuit of new understandings and practices that will improve education. The traditional approaches and this" new one should not be pursued separately.
|
From page 137... ...
OERI's mission is to expand understanding and assist in the improvement of education. It has no authority over teacher education institutions, state education agencies, school boards, district administrators, principals, teachers, or parents.
|
From page 138... ...
OERI's current mission statement includes a long list of responsibilities for the agency, which drives the agency to try to be everything to everybody. As a result, OERI has spread its resources so thin that there is little chance of fulfilling any of the responsibilities well.
|
From page 139... ...
We have also retained a reference to monitoring the state of education because it is essential for knowing what is actually achieved. OERI's current mission statement does not explicitly indicate that the agency should work closely with the major groups that are importantly involved in, or affected by, education.
|
From page 140... ...
Major advances in the natural sciences and technology applications often have taken a decade or longer. Without substantially enhanced programs of basic research, field-initiated research, and long-term sustained efforts, OERI will be a feeble partner in the nation's quest for substantial education reform.
|
From page 141... ...
This recommendation would not require additional staffing or funding for OERI. A-4 OERI's agenda setting should be guided by a 24-member policymaking board.
|
From page 142... ...
Congressional legislation requires the council to be "broadly representative" of several groups. For at least the past 3 years, however, the council has apparently had no active education researchers or other social scientists among its members.
|
From page 143... ...
The OERI board should monitor the health, needs, and accomplishments of OERI's R&D and all federally sponsored education R&D; report periodically to the President and Congress about both; and guide the agenda setting of the agency. This recommendation will not require additional staff or funding.
|
From page 144... ...
OERI and other federal agencies involved in education R&D have done a poor job of describing the contributions of their work (see Chapter 4~. There is a need to synthesize succinctly and saliently what has been learned from education research, how it has extended prior knowledge, the implications for practice and school reform, the development and assistance activities that have used the research, and the effects of those efforts.
|
From page 145... ...
and field-initiated studies; Programs for the Improvement of Practice, which includes the ten regional laboratories, the Program Effectiveness Panel and the National Diffusion Network
|
From page 146... ...
This unit would include regional Reform Assistance Laboratories, an expanded PEP/NDN, a modified FIRST Program, and a national electronic network system that would incorporate the current ERIC system. It would also support schools of education, state departments of education, and local districts in efforts to make teachers and principals full partners in the quest for school reform.
|
From page 147... ...
Library Programs R&D Directorate R&D Directorate · Centers · Centers · Field-lnitiated · Field-lnitiated Studies Studies · Special Studies · Special Studies . ~' ~I, eve i i 1 1 1 1 1 ~I 1 1 · Centers · Field-lnitiated Studies · Special Studies Reform Assistance Directorate Publications Electronic Network/ERIC Program Effectiveness Panel (PEP)
|
From page 148... ...
The primary responsibilities of the Reform Assistance Directorate (RAD) would be to provide reform assistance to parents, schools, districts, states, Congress, professional education associations, teacher development institutions, commercial publishers, and employers.
|
From page 149... ...
A second is that the Reform Assistance Directorate will have to serve, in effect, many masters, which is never easy. Most aspects of this recommendation are elaborated in subsequent recommendations, and the consequences for OERI's staff and budget are discussed there.
|
From page 150... ...
The Reform Assistance Directorate would be responsible for nationwide dissemination of the centers' completed innovative developments, to help ensure that dissemination of the innovations is coordinated with other reform assistance efforts. Most of the centers now receive less than $1 million in annual support from OERI.
|
From page 151... ...
(The fiscal year 1991 appropriation provides $20.6 million for centers, and an additional $1.0 million of other money is used to fund one center.) B-4 OERI's regionally governed laboratories should be administered by the Reform Assistance Directorate and converted to Reform Assistance Laboratories (RALs)
|
From page 152... ...
The laboratories are in a good position, with some modifications, to facilitate school reform. Laboratories have established contacts with most state education agencies, they are well known and respected by many of the school districts in their regions, and most have considerable experience in providing technical assistance.
|
From page 153... ...
It will help to remind the RAL staff that they must address both local and regional concerns, allow the RALs to provide more services than otherwise possible, and help ensure that the recipients of RAL services make good use of them. The extent of cost sharing might be phased in, starting at a relatively low percentage while the RALs establish a track record that builds up demand for their services.
|
From page 154... ...
B-5 The Reform Assistance Directorate should support the researchbased refinement and rigorous evaluation of innovative programs and processes that have the greatest potential for use in school reform and help schools in using these programs and processes. This recommendation represents an expansion of the functions currently carried out by the Program Effectiveness Panel (PEP)
|
From page 155... ...
As a consequence, the committee suggests above that the duties of the NDN state facilitators be assumed by the state liaison and assistance staff of the Reform Assistance Laboratories. Because the NDN state facilitators have already generally forged good linkages with schools throughout the state, the RALs might well want to incorporate these people into their new state staffs.
|
From page 156... ...
B-6 The Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching (FIRST) programs that support local school-based reforms should be administered by the Reform Assistance Directorate, should be modified to require utilization of research in development of the improvements, should involve teachers and principals in the development process, and should provide sustained support for these efforts.
|
From page 157... ...
Electronic networking would also allow teachers and school administrators to share ideas and feedback among themselves through "electronic bulletin boards." For instance, a bulletin board might be established for each NDN program, allowing users and potential users of the program to post queries, tips, and warnings, and to answer the posted queries. The Reform Assistance Directorate should foster development of a national electronic network in several ways.
|
From page 158... ...
The budget increase would permit clearinghouse indexing of all key social science journals, expanded and more careful flagging of key documents and articles, the purchase of rights to the full text of key materials, and the augmented international efforts. B-8 The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES)
|
From page 159... ...
B-9 OERI should work with teacher and administrator education programs, state agencies, and local districts to help practitioners and researchers create learning communities that use research findings, practitioners' craft wisdom, and pursue new inquiry in the quest for educational reform. The committee is convinced that widespread school reform will require partnerships between researchers and practitioners.
|
From page 160... ...
New curricula, teaching approaches, and technology can be valuable, but only in the hands of enthusiastic, coordinated, and committed teachers. There are several important roles OERI can play in assisting local school reform.
|
From page 161... ...
Scholars from other disciplines who do not see how their work might be relevant to education research must be persuaded that OERI welcomes their insights and input: economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists have tools and lines of inquiry that are directly applicable to problems in education, as do neurobiologists studying the development and functioning of the brain; and mathematicians, natural scientists, and scholars in the humanities and arts obviously have a wealth of knowledge about the subjects taught in school. OERI needs to actively solicit proposals for research from them, as well as offer dissertation funds for graduate students in the sciences, humanities, and arts who choose to do research on education issues.
|
From page 162... ...
The four recommendations in this section address these problems. They would give OERI its own personnel authority, its own contracts and grants office, and sole responsibility for its publications; encourage the agency to recruit top-flight personnel and create an intellectually attractive work environment for them; modify the peer review of proposals for grants and contracts; and have the agency use a consensus development process to determine the implications of important and controversial bodies of research and evaluation.
|
From page 163... ...
Independent staffing authority will not guarantee avoidance of this in the future, but it will make disparities between staffing levels and agency responsibilities more obvious to those involved in the budget process. There is at least one disadvantage in giving OERI its own personnel and procurement offices.
|
From page 164... ...
OERI currently issues about 160 reports a year, and staff also prepare many other professional papers and speeches in their official capacities. C-2 OERI should actively recruit highly qualified personnel from various disciplines for OERI staff positions and should create an intellectually stimulating working environment.
|
From page 165... ...
This recommendation will not require additional staff positions or program budget. The rotators would fill existing staff slots.
|
From page 166... ...
FUNDING OERI's budget was $380 million dollars in fiscal 1991, of which most was spent on Library Programs and development work that is not based on research. Under the narrow definition of R&D used by NSF and OMB, the agency invested only an estimated $58 million in research and development work.
|
From page 167... ...
Over the same period, the need for significant reform of the nation's schools has gained prominence. There is now major public support for the six National Education Goals, but little agreement about how to achieve them.
|
From page 168... ...
Together our recommendations will require an addition of about $267 million annually for OERI's program budget. About 214 more staff will be needed for expanded program operations, several more for OERI's own personnel and procurement offices, and whatever additional number is required to provide support services for the enlarged staff (accounting and payroll, supplies, mail, computer support,
|
From page 169... ...
The committee sees it as a critical investment in the nation's future. Without the investment, and concomitant efforts at state and local levels, the country is not likely to come close to meeting the national education goals.
|
From page 170... ...
The sustained efforts that are so important for progress in science and technology have been limited. Promising innovations are disseminated without the iterations of R&D that are needed to maximize results and minimize costs across diverse situations, and without evaluation of their long-term effects.
|
From page 171... ...
We recommend major changes in the governance of OERI to improve the agenda setting of the agency, balance its portfolio of work, and bring stability to the top management. Our recommendations for reorganization would expand, focus, and integrate much of the research and development work; strengthen PEP and NDN; correct a critical shortage of staff in NCES; coordinate, extend and supplement the various dissemination and technical assistance efforts; strengthen quality assurance; and initiate efforts to encourage and foster the above mentioned learning communities.
|
From page 172... ...
72 RESEAR CH AND ED UCA TI ON REFORM meets are needed, and that the nation's diverse resources must be mobilized to meet this challenge. Our recommendations for OERI are in full accord with that agreement.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.