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OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND IMPROVEMENT (OERI) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTERS JUNE 1991 MISSION AND FUNCTIONS The National Research and Development Centers, supported by the Office of Research, conduct research on topics of national significance to educational policy and practice. Each center works in a defined field on a multi-disciplinary program of research and development. Each center's responsibility is to: o Exercise leadership in its mission area. o Conduct research and development that advance theory and practice. o Attract the sustained attention of expert researchers to concentrate on problems in education. o Create a long-term interaction between researchers and educators. o Participate in a network for collaborative exchange in the education community. o Disseminate research findings in useful forms to education policymakers and practitioners. o Participate in a Telecommunications Network (ICnet) OERI Coordinator for the National Research and Development Center Program: Ned Chalker Office of Research Office of the Director 202-219-1564 CENTER ON ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION, AND TESTING Grantee: University of California, Los Angeles Center for the Study of Evaluation 145 Moore Hall Los Angeles, California 90024-1522 213-206-1530 303-492-8280 Co-Directors: Eva Baker Robert L. Linn Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of California, Los Angeles University of Colorado RAND National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago University of Pittsburgh Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve educational performance assessment so as to meet the needs of policy makers, practitioners, and students. The work of the Center will increase our understanding of new and alternative assessments of student learning; assessment theories, models and methods; and the effects of assessment practices. The Center will pay particular attention to national and State initiatives and will strive to meet national and State assessment, testing, and evaluation needs. The Center will carry out its work through three programs: (1) Building Infrastructure for Improved Assessment; (2) Designing Improved Learning-Based Assessments: Prototypes and Models; and (3) Collaborative Development of Assessments in Practice Settings. The Center will work with other R&D Centers, States, and national organizations in conducting development efforts, program evaluations, and/or validation studies. The Center will also disseminate information on testing and assessment to appropriate audiences and will collaborate with organizations that deal with student and school performance issues. Key Personnel Eva Baker Robert Linn Dan Koretz Darrel Bock Lauren Resnick Ric Shavelson Center Liaison: David Sweet CENTER ON FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES, SCHOOLS, AND CHILDREN'S LEARNING (CCL-1/91) Grantee: Boston University 605 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02215 617-353-3309; FAX: 617-353-8444 Co-Directors: Don Davies Joyce Epstein Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members The Institute for Responsive Education The Johns Hopkins University University of Illinois Wheelock College Yale University Boston University Abstract The mission of this Center is to conduct research and develop projects, policy analyses, and dissemination efforts to produce new and useful knowledge about how families, schools and communities foster student motivation, learning, and development. A second important goal is to improve significant institutions. Two research programs guide the Center's work: the Program on the Early Years of Childhood, covering children ages 0-10 through the elementary grades; and the Program on the Years of Early and Late Adolescence, covering youngsters ages 11-19 through the middle and high school grades. Research on family, school, and community connections must be conducted to understand more about all children and all families, not just those who are economically and educationally advantaged, or already connected to school and community resources. The Center's projects pay particular attention to the diversity of family cultures and backgrounds and to the diversity in family, school, and community practices that may support families in helping all children succeed across the years of childhood and adolescence. A third program of Institutional Activities includes a wide range of dissemination projects to extend the Center's national leadership. The Center's work will yield new information, new practices, and approaches to developing policies to promote partnerships among families, communities, and schools to benefit children's learning. Key Personnel of each Consortium Partner The Institute for Responsive (617) 353-3309 Education (FAX) 617-353-8444 Boston University School of Education 605 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215 Don Davies Vivian Johnson Owen Heleen Patricia Burch Ameetha Palanki The Johns Hopkins University (301) 338-7570 3503 North Charles Street (FAX) 301-338-6370 Baltimore, MD 21218 Joyce Epstein Lawrence Dolan Saundra Nettles Laura Salganik Karen Salinas John Hollifield Boston University (617) 353-3309 School of Social Work (FAX) 617-353-8444 264 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215 Melvin Delgado University of Illinois (217) 333-2245 210 Education Building (FAX) 217-333-5847 1310 South Sixth Street Champaign, IL 61820 Carole Ames Diane Scott-Jones Wheelock College (617) 734-5200 45 Pilgrim Road (FAX) 617-566-7369 Boston, MA 02215 Nitza Hidalgo Theresa Perry Sau-Fong Siu Susan McAllister Swap Yale University (203) 432-4577 P.O. Box 11A (FAX) 203-432-7147 Yale Station New Haven, CT 06520 S. Lynn Kagan Center Liaison Pat Lines (202) 219-2223 OERI/OR (FAX) 202-219-2030 555 New Jersey Ave., NW Washington, DC 20208 CENTER ON EDUCATION IN THE INNER CITIES Grantee: Temple University Center for Research in Human Development in Education 13th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue 933 Ritter Hall Annex Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 215-787-3001 Director: Margaret C. Wang Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of Illinois at Chicago University of Houston Abstract The mission of this Center is to strengthen education and related resources in inner cities by conducting a program of interdisciplinary research and development on families, schools, and communities. The Center will synthesize and extend the existing research base and also examine the state of actual practice. This research will be organized into three main programs: 1) "Family: An Agent in the Education Process" will develop new data on child socialization practices in inner city families, evaluate child rearing skills support programs, and focus on major problems such as substance abuse faced by adolescents in the inner cities. 2) "School: Resilience and Learning Success" will focus on school interventions which foster success among inner city students with diverse learning characteristics and needs. 3) "Community: Connections with Education" will consider linkages between schools and community organizations such as government, businesses, religious institutions, social and medical service agencies, and the mass media designed to multiply the effectiveness of individual interventions and thereby to improve the education of inner city children, youth and young adults. The program area on families will include projects focusing on the following topics: (1) the utilization of parent education and other resources among teenage mothers and parents of Head Start children, including an evaluation of all such programs in the North Philadelphia study area; and (2) the problems of inner city adolescents, including one study testing Ogbu's theory of underachievement and another on family and group therapy intervention processes in the school setting for early adolescents with behavioral problems. The program area on schools will include five projects: (1) a comparative analysis of differences between high and low performing inner city public, parochial and independent schools in five urban areas; (2) a study of financial, educational, social and psychological data first in Chicago and then elsewhere to identify determinants of school effectiveness and efficiency; (3) a study of students in the top and bottom fifths of their classes on achievement and the ways in which schools work with them; (4) a longitudinal study in Houston of factors which contribute to elementary schools' improvement or decay; and (5) research on school district reforms impinging on secondary schools, beginning with a survey of the 45 member districts of the Council of the Great City Schools, from which four will be selected for intensive case studies. The program area on communities will include five projects: (1) an analysis of the ecology of urban education in terms of resources, populations, and economic opportunities in relation to educational outcomes -- nationally for 60 cities, in more detail for 4-6 cities, and intensively for Philadelphia; (2) a study in several localities of inner city schools which offer exemplary programs in parent/community relations and in professional service coordination; (3) exploratory case studies of new school- community collaborative programs in Minneapolis and Philadelphia; (4) a synthesis of literature on adolescent development in a multi-cultural context and school performance, to be followed by a conference evaluating the theoretical model and the development and administration of measures of developmental processes relevant to school performance; and (5) continuation of a Philadelphia economic monitoring project that will show for individuals and households how economic activity is related to education, personal, and family characteristics including neighborhood location and how it changes over time. Comparisons to other metropolitan areas will eventually be made. Key Personnel Temple University Aquiles Iglesias Leo Rigsby Joan McCord Howard Liddle Diana Oxley Elaine Kaplan David Bartelt Ronald Taylor Ira Goldstein Joann Manning William Stull Ivan Quandt William Yancey University of Houston Jerome Freiberg Hersholt Waxman University of Illinois, Chicago Herbert Walberg Lascelles Anderson Robert Crowson University of Minnesota Maynard Reynolds Pennsylvania State University William Boyd University of Pennsylvania Janice Madden Philadelphia Children's Network Rhonda Lauer Center Liaison: Oliver Moles THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING Grantee: University of California, Santa Cruz Kerr Hall Santa Cruz, California 95064 408-459-3501 Co-Directors: Eugene Garcia Barry McLaughlin Affiliated Organizations: Consortium Members The Linquistic Minority Research Project of the University of California System The Center for Applied Linguistics Abstract: The mission of the Center is to promote the intellectual development, literacy, and thoughtful citizenship of language minority students, and appreciation of the multicultural and linguistic diversity of the American people. The Center will focus on the relationship between first and second language learning, and the relationship between cultural and linguistic factors in the achievement of literacy. Other projects will help develop teaching strategies to improve the learning of children from diverse cultural backgrounds and develop alternative methods of assessment for these children. Dissemination of useful information to improve teaching and learning is a central part of the Center's work. Dissemination will be directed toward language minority children, their parents and their teachers, as well as to resource centers, policy makers, advocacy groups, researchers and others concerned with their needs. A special feature of the dissemination strategy is to focus on specific instructional problems identified by classroom teachers. The heart of the Center's approach is to move beyond the narrow focus of bilingual education characteristic of the 1980's to a more dynamic focus that places language learning within a broader social and cultural setting. Key Personnel Richard Duran Hugh Mehan G. Richard Tucker David Sanchez Richard Figueroa Richard Tucker Richard Gallimore Lily Wong Fillmore Center Liaison: Rene Gonzalez NATIONAL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WRITING AND LITERACY Grantee: University of California at Berkeley School of Education 5513 Tolman Hall Berkeley, California 94720 415-643-7022 Director: Sarah W. Freedman Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Carnegie Mellon University Abstract The mission of this Center is to expand opportunities for the students in our schools to improve their writing and literacy skills. The work of the Center is tied to four major objectives: creating workable theories on the teaching and learning of writing; understanding more fully the interrelationships between writing and learning as well as between writing and other language and literacy skills; ensuring dissemination of this knowledge; and providing a national focal point for writing research. The Center plans to pursue a number of projects in Years 1 and 2: 1) Three projects will focus on learners who are making key transitions in acquiring and using literacy -- from young children just entering school to intermediate grade children using writing as they work in various subject areas and non-native speakers who are entering secondary school. 2) Two projects will examine teachers' efforts to accommodate the diversity present in American classrooms today. 3) Another two projects will study the transitions made by adults from diverse backgrounds as they learn to write in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes. 4) One project will examine the different ways in which families view literacy and education. Three projects are scheduled to begin in Year 3 and will focus on: 1) the writing and literacy demands of the workplace; 2) the ways in which writing in the school can be reshaped so as to reflect the diversity of the student population; and 3) the role new technologies can play in expanding the writing curriculum. Key Personnel University of California-Berkeley Anne H. Dyson James Gray Carnegie Mellon Linda Flower John R. Hayes Other Matthew T. Downey Guadalupe Valdes Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong Sandra R. Schecter Robert C. Calfee Karen Schriver Nancy N. Spivey Carol B. Stack Glynda A. Hall Jenny Cook-Gumperz John Ogbu Elizabeth Simons Center Liaison: Anne Sweet CENTER FOR STUDENT LEARNING Grantee: University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center 3939 O'Hara Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 412-624-7450 Co-directors: Robert Glaser Lauren Resnick Affiliated Organizations None Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve instruction in thinking and reasoning skills for all students. In addressing this mission, the Center will undertake three research programs involving a total of nine projects. The first program, entitled "Strategies for Thinking," will explore the nature of potentially teachable thinking and reasoning strategies. The focus will be on strategies that are broadly applicable in many areas of the school curriculum, such as self-monitoring strategies for learning from text, and strategies for engaging in reasoning and argumentation in the social sciences. The second program, entitled "Knowledge Foundations for Thinking," will explore the nature of knowledge in various academic subject areas, including mathematics, history, and science. This program will also explore the nature of the background knowledge that students bring to instruction and the conditions under which such knowledge affects learning. The third program, entitled "Thinking in the Classroom," will consider instructional conditions that foster proficiency in higher order thinking. This program will look closely at instances of exemplary instructional practice in order to describe the nature of the instructional materials used, the nature of the explanations offered by teachers, the structure of classroom activity, and the learning outcomes. Instruction in several subject areas, including science, mathematics and history will be studied, and the classrooms examined will range from elementary through high school. In addition, a fourth program of work will be undertaken at this center. This program will include a variety of activities directed at maintaining a leadership role in the scholarly community and at disseminating the findings from the research to practitioners and policy makers. Among these initiatives are several national invitational conferences for scholars on important issues in learning and instruction, along with several knowledge synthesis and utilization efforts implemented in collaboration with major practitioner associations such as the NEA, AFT, and ASCD. Key Personnel University of Pittsburgh Isabel Beck Stellan Ohlsson William Bickel Charles Perfetti Victoria Bill Kalyani Raghavan Michelene Chi Leslie Salmon- Cox Diana Forsythe Leona Schauble Gaea Leinhardt Janet Schofield John Levine Edward Silver Margaret McKeown James Voss Center Liaison: Judy Segal CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON TEACHER LEARNING (CL-2/2/91) Grantee: Michigan State University College of Education 116 Erickson Hall East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1034 517-355-9302 Director: Mary Kennedy Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of Wisconsin-Madison Education Matters, Inc. Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve the education of teachers so as to increase the effectiveness of instruction in the classroom. The Center's work will focus on four elements that are essential to research on teacher learning: 1)A Recognition of Public Expectations for the Reform of Schools -- research will be conducted on how teachers can learn to teach in more powerful and demanding ways than teachers have been asked to teach in the past. 2)A Theory of the Teacher as a Learner -- research will address the question of how teachers can transform the understandings they bring with them into better ways of understanding teaching. 3)A Definition of the Central Task of Teaching -- research will determine what teachers need to learn about both subject matter and learners and how they learn about these topics. 4)A Recognition of the Unique Features of Teaching Practice -- studies will examine how teachers can learn both the intellectual and the logistical aspects of managing ambiguous, dynamic, and complex learning environments. Three programs of research and sets of research questions are based on the Center's mission: Program A - Transforming Beliefs about Teaching, Learning, and Learners. How can teachers and prospective teachers be helped to change beliefs that limit the possibilities for improving their teaching? Program B - Linking Subject Matter to Diverse Learners. How can teachers be helped to understand both subject matter and students in ways that better enable them to connect the two? Program C - Learning to Reason Pedagogically and Manage Instruction. How do teachers learn to deal with dilemmas in selecting and using instructional tasks, in managing classroom discourse, in orchestrating groups of students, and in assessing what students are learning? Key Personnel Michigan State University Linda Anderson G. Williamson McDiarmid Deborah Loewenberg Ball Tom Bird Sharon Feiman-Nemser Susan Melnick Lynn Paine Education Matters, Inc. Barbara Neufeld University of Wisconsin-Madison Kenneth Zeichner Center Liaison: Elizabeth Ashburn CENTER ON POSTSECONDARY TEACHING, LEARNING, AND ASSESSMENT (CCL-2/6/91) Grantee: Pennsylvania State University Center for the Study of Higher Education 403 S. Allen Street, Suite 104 University Park, Pennsylvania 16801-5202 814-865-5917 Director: James L. Ratcliff Patrick T. Terenzini Affiliated Organizations: Consortium Members University of Illinois - Chicago Northwestern University Syracuse University University of Tennessee - Knoxville North Carolina State University - Raleigh Abstract: Since 1983, at least seven national reports have appeared criticizing the quality of undergraduate education in America's colleges and universities. Today, a college education costs more and is worth less than a decade ago, at least as measured by graduates' declining test scores, poor performance on state and professional licensure examinations, and employers' complaints about graduates' inadequate intellectual and job-related skills. Moreover, while the equality of student access to some form of postsecondary education appears to have been achieved, not all students have equal access to the education benefits of college attendance. Compared to "traditional" college students, racial and ethnic minorities, community college students, and part-time students tend to show smaller gains in a number of areas and are less likely to persist it and complete an educational program. What is more, demographic forecasts consistently indicate that these students will attend colleges and universities during this decase and the next in larger numbers than ever before. Colleges and universities must discover how to better educate all of their students. The National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment will seek solutions to these and other problems. The Center's comprehensive, but carefully integrated, program of action-oriented research and dissemination aims to discover what facilitates and impedes student learning and how to enhance the educational effectiveness of current institutional, state, and federal policies and practices. Research efforts using a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches will focus on four educational outcomes: content learning, cognitive skill development, attitudes and values related to learning, and student retention and degree completion. Efforts to identify institutionally- and policy-manipulable sources of influence on each of these outcomes will concentrate on four research program areas: the undergraduate curriculum, faculty and formal classroom instructional activities, out-of- class learning environments, and administrative structures, policies, and practices. Most importantly, and in contrast with research done to-date, the Center will use a combination of research methods that focuses on manipulable sources of influences. These influences will be studied in terms of their effects on groups of students at the same campuses over a three- year period. This research agenda and design will provide new information on student learning that is more comprehensive and integrated than that produced by any previous research effort. Educational outcomes will be examined with particular reference to three major policy issues: 1) how outcomes vary according to a student's race/ethnicity, gender, and age; 2) how outcomes vary according to the kind of institution a student attends (e.g., 2- vs. 4-year, residential vs. commuter); and 3) how the assessment of student learning outcomes and institutional effectiveness can be improved and linked directly to policy-making and practice at institutional, state, and federal levels. Too often researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners function in separate worlds, each uninformed by, and uninvolved in, the other's endeavors. This consortium of researchers and administrators recognizes and is committed to the reciprocal relationship between research, policy, and practice. Exemplary cases of effective undergraduate programs and state-level policies will be identified that can be studied and described in ways that will make these successful cases transferable to other settings. Research results will be translated and transformed into materials designed specifically for use by elected policy- makers, higher education agencies, academic leaders, institutional administrators, individual faculty members, as well as parents and students. Key Personnel: Pennsylvania State University Estela Bensimon James Fairweather William G. Tierney Lee Upcraft Bobby Wright Maryellen Weimer University of Illinois Larry Braskamp Ernest T. Pascarella Amaury Nora Northwestern University Robert J. Menges Syracuse University Vincent Tinto University of Tennessee Michael T. Nettles University of North Carolina-Raleigh Laura I. Rendon Center Liaison: Jeffrey Gilmore CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND TEACHER EVALUATION Grantee: Western Michigan University 401 B Ellsworth Hall Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008 616-387-5895 Director: Daniel Stufflebeam Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members The University of Alabama College of William and Mary University of South Florida Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve our understanding of performance evaluation and educational accountability in order to assist U.S. schools in their efforts to conduct valid evaluations of teachers, administrators, and schools; to use these evaluations to improve services to students, and to improve accountability. This mission will be addressed through a collaborative effort involving technical experts, policy experts, researchers, evaluators, school districts, educational agencies and organizations. The Center will organize its research around four major programs: 1) Improvement of Teacher Performance Evaluations; 2) Improvement of Evaluations of Administrators, Supplementary Personnel, and Schools; 3) Products and Services/Dissemination; and 4) Theory Development and Special Projects. Among other activities, the Center will develop data bases on both existing personnel and school evaluation practices and "best practice models," test and document a variety of alternative assessment models, and conduct national workshops to help state and school district groups examine and improve their evaluation systems. This Center will also create a national users network which every school and district in the country will be invited to join and will develop a source book to improve teachers' and administrators' preservice evaluation courses. Key Personnel Western Michigan University Arnold Gallegos James Sanders John Sandberg Stanford University Michael Scriven The University of Alabama Judith Burry Institute for Instructional Research Practice Joseph Blackman Michigan State University Edgar Kelley Center Liaison: Conrad Katzenmeyer CENTER FOR POLICY RESEARCH IN EDUCATION Grantee: Rutgers University The Eagleton Institute of Politics Wood Lawn Neilson Campus Clifton Avenue New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903-0270 908-828-3872 Director: Susan Fuhrman Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Michigan State University Stanford University The University of Wisconsin - Madison Harvard University (year 2) Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve student learning by conducting and disseminating research on policy making and the links between policy and practice. The work of the Center is characterized by three key objectives: 1) to focus research on policies that enable high levels of learning by students from a broad range of social and economic backgrounds; 2) to conduct research that will lead to greater coherence in state and local policies to promote student learning; and 3) to undertake research that will increase the responsiveness of state and local policies to the diverse needs of students, schools, communities, and states. During Years 1 and 2, the Center proposes to conduct 10 projects. Upgrading Instruction and Achievement in High Schools will examine the effects of instructional policies on the instruction offered primarily to lower-achieving students (those who usually receive lower levels of instruction), and the subsequent achievement of these students. Achievement Trends in the United States will focus on the major changes in the country's education and health policy and practice that will be required to meet the national goals related to educational achievement. School Incentives and Teacher Motivation will investigate the impact of school incentives on the motivation and performance of teachers. Instructional Practices and Student Achievement in Eighth Grade Mathematics will investigate the instructional practices in eighth grade mathematics across the states and identify state characteristics and policies related to these practices. Designing Coherent Education Policy will begin with a series of papers including "A Comparison of State and National Systems of Instructional Guidance," "Toward Coherent State Instructional Guidance and Governance Systems," "Coherence as Viewed from the Classroom and School," "Policy Coherence and School District Management," "Student's Perspectives on Educational Policies," "Portraits of Coherent Schools," and "Designing Coherent Early Childhood Policy." The Design and Architecture of State Education Reform will present a strategic assessment of the conception, design, architecture, and depth of overall state policy. State Instructional Policy, Teaching Practice, and Learning in Elementary Schools will study the relationship between coherent state instructional policies and school instructional practice. District Variation in Managing Coherence will investigate a set of critical decisions made by districts as they seek to influence schooling: how to allocate authority for key functions -- curriculum, assessment, staffing budget, staff development -- among central office, area subunits where they exist, and schools. Managing Diversity Among Schools will study how districts mediate between state policies and school diversity, encourage school- designed improvement, sustain and propagate promising approaches, and assist lower-performing schools. States and Diversity will investigate the relationship between deregulation or state assistance/intervention and improvement at the school site, as judged by performance measures and the institution of changes associated with improved student learning. Key Personnel Michigan State University Deborah Ball David Cohen Penelope Peterson Richard Prawat Gary Sykes Suzanne Wilson Rutgers Susan Fuhrman Stephen Barnett William Firestone Wayne Hoy Alan Rosenthal Stanford University Martin Carnoy Jane Hannaway Michael Kirst Milbrey McLaughlin Marshall Smith University of Wisconsin William Clune Andrew Porter Harvard University Richard Elmore Educational Testing Service Margaret Goertz University of Michigan Janet Weiss Center Liaison: Jim Fox CENTER ON ADULT LITERACY (CCL-2/12/91) Grantee: The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education 3700 Walnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6216 215-898-2100 FAX: 215-898-9804 Director: Daniel Wagner Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members National Center for Family Literacy Center for Applied Linguistics City University of New York Education Testing Service Indiana University Johns Hopkins University Northwest Regional Laboratory Pelavin Associates, Inc. University of California - Berkeley University of California, Santa Barbara University of Delaware University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center Abstract The mission of this Center is to establish a national agenda for adult literacy research and development and to improve practice in the field. The Center will focus on the following major research topics: 1) identifying and describing the diverse populations needing literacy services; 2) determining the factors that influence motivation and facilitate learning; 3) studying the experiences of adult literacy students from their decision to enroll through their success in using acquired skills in the workplace and in life; 4) identifying best practices in delivery systems and teaching methodologies; and 5) improving collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Initially, the Center's work will concentrate on three major projects. The first project will use research-based models of student-assisted literacy training to improve the literacy (and numeracy) skills of adults. A literacy corps model will be disseminated as a training model to other colleges and universities. In addition, a numeracy training corps model based on the literacy model will be developed. Specific applications of this training approach to the workplace will also be considered. This project will develop and disseminate a solution to the problems of staffing literacy efforts and involving all elements of a community, particularly institutions of higher education, in literacy programs. A second project will survey 400 families from low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia to study the relationship of family functioning to literacy attainment and retention, with emphasis on citizenship tasks. The results of the survey will provide a better understanding of the problems persons of limited literacy competence face when required to complete standard information forms, as well as how such problems are resolved. This information will assist public agencies that must deal with underliterate adults, educators who design programs to overcome functional literacy deficiencies, and researchers studying both the literacy levels and the patterns of behavior that accompany limited literacy skills. The third project will: 1) review and synthesize existing knowledge concerning how well literacy programs work; 2) conduct research on how well adults retain literacy skills; and 3) develop a set of recommendations on how training programs might improve their success rates. Experience in both the U.S. and abroad indicates that individuals who have completed literacy training programs may not retain their skills as long as previously thought, or at a level high enough to be useful. Since major investments are being made in literacy programs, it is critical to know how retention can be improved. Key Personnel National Center for Family Literacy Sharon Darling Center for Applied Linguistics JoAnne Crandall City University of New York Richard Sterling Education Testing Service Irwin Kirsch Indiana University Larry Mikulecky Johns Hopkins University Jomills Braddock, III Northwest Regional Laboratory Stephen Reder Pelavin Associates, Inc. Mark Kutner University of California - Berkeley Sarah Freedman Norton Grubb University of California - Santa Barbara Richard Duran University of Delaware Richard L. Venezky University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center Alan Lesgold Center Liaison: Ann Benjamin CENTER ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUALITY OF THE WORKFORCE Grantee: The University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research on Higher Education 4200 Pine Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4090 215-898-4585215-898-2722 Director: Robert Zemsky Peter Cappelli Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Wharton School Cornell University, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies Abstract The mission of this Center is to better understand the educational needs of American's workforce with the aim of improving economic productivity. The Center's research will be organized around four themes: (1)discovering and communicating the education requirements for work-related education; (2)gauging the cost and benefits of education and training; (3)studying workforce lifecycles and their effects; and (4)indexing the types of employee skills needed in relation to those provided by education and training suppliers. The Center will conduct three major research activities: 1)The Basic Enumeration and Data Collection project will document the content and availability of existing data sets, build necessary cross-walks among data sets and identify missing information needed to improve the effectiveness of adult workforce learning. It will then design instruments and procedures to collect the highest priority information, and conduct pilot tests of these materials and approaches to determine how useful they would be to policy makers. 2)The Ethnographic Study on Skills Requirements in Technical Occupations will determine the specific knowledge and skills -- verbal, physical, mathematical, and interpersonal -- required of workers in highly technical occupations. The study is comprised of data collection, field work in 2-3 work sites, and data analysis. The findings of the study will provide essential information to education and training institutions for the planning and development of their curricula. It will also help firms and employment agencies understand better the organization and managerial changes brought on by an increasingly technical workforce. 3)A conference on "The States' Pursuit of Competitive Advantage: Capitalizing on a Basic Political Motive to Refine Recurrent learning Opportunities for the Adult Workforce" will identify opportunities for state-level governments to recast their current investments in adult workforce renewal based on emerging workforce competency requirements. The conference will highlight the "pursuit of advantage" as a means of translating new information into routine practice. Governors, state legislators, cabinet members, and their respective staff will be informed of how to redirect state workforce renewal investments toward the specific goal of nurturing adult workforce productivity. States will also be informed of new ways in which they can capitalize on what they are already spending on adult education and workforce renewal. In addition, the Center will undertake a data analysis project intended to link together all of the Center's activities. This project will involve the development, testing, and dissemination of data sets and methods for assessing the scale, scope, and content of work-related education and training for adult learners. Key Personnel Stephen Barley Cornell University John Bishop Cornell University Peter Cappelli Wharton School Robert J. House Wharton School Peter Sherer Wharton School Michael L. Tierney HERI, University of Pennsylvania Center Liaison: Nevzer Stacey CENTER ON ORGANIZATION AND RESTRUCTURING OF SCHOOLS Grantee: University of Wisconsin Wisconsin Center for Education Research 1025 West Johnson Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706 608-263-7575 Director: Fred Newmann Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of Minnesota Harvard University University of Pennsylvania Stanford University University of Chicago Abstract The mission of this Center is to produce new and useful knowledge about school organization and restructuring so as to inform the efforts of policy makers and practitioners who are engaged in education reform. In addressing this mission, the Center will focus its attention upon six questions: 1) How can schooling nurture authentic forms of human achievement? 2) How can schooling enhance educational equity? 3) How can decentralization and local empowerment be constructively developed? 4) How can educational organizations be transformed into learning communities settings? 5) How can dialogues of change be enriched? 6) How can the focus on student outcomes be shaped to support these five principles? The Center's research will be organized around the following topic areas: 1) student experiences 2) the professional life of teachers 3) school governance, management, and leadership 4) the coordination of community resources. In order to ensure that its findings receive widespread exposure, the Center will identify target populations, and make use of existing organizations endeavor to reach these populations. Key Personnel University of Wisconsin Gary Wehlage Anne Lockwood Kent Peterson Andrew Porter Adam Gamoran University of Minnesota Karen Seashore Louis University of Chicago Anthony Bryk Harvard University Courtney Cazden Stanford University Elizabeth Cohen Center Liaison: David Stevenson CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES EDUCATION Grantee: University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin Center for Education Research 1025 West Johnson Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706 608-263-4285 Director: Thomas Romberg Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Harvard University San Diego State University Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve mathematics teaching and learning in order to improve the performance of America's schools and its students in this critical subject area. Building on the work of OERI's existing Center at the University of Wisconsin, the new National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education will form working groups to focus on five key areas in mathematics: whole numbers, quantities, algebra and quantitative analysis, geometry, and statistics. In addition, working groups will be formed to examine authentic assessment and implementation. The authentic assessment group will focus in particular on the development of assessment instruments that reflect the objectives and content of the mathematics program as well as broader curricular goals and the manner in which the material is taught. These assessment instruments will be expected to measure progress towards a full range of educational goals, not just a narrow set of measurable objectives. The implementation group will look at means whereby mathematics teaching and learning can be changed, considering the educational reform movement as a whole but concentrating in particular on instructional technology, teacher education, and school contexts. Key Personnel University of Wisconsin Thomas Romberg Thomas Carpenter Elizabeth Fennema Susanne Lajoie Richard Lehrer Walter Gonzalez Secada Southeastern Massachusetts University James J. Kaput Harvard University Judah Schwartz Martha Stone Wiske San Diego State University Judith Sowder Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Donald Chambers Center Liaison: Conrad Katzenmeyer CENTER FOR SCIENCE TEACHING AND LEARNING Grantee: The Ohio State University Room 104 Research Center 1314 Kinnear Road Columbus, Ohio 43212-1194 614-292-3339 Director: Arthur L. White Affiliated Organizations None Abstract The mission of this Center is to improve science learning in grades K-12. The Center's research will be organized around the following major areas: 1. Social and Cultural Factors 2. Public Expectations and Societal Incentives 3. School Organization and Policy: Economic and Political Forces 4. New Technologies The Social and Cultural Factors area will concentrate on a number of important issues in the social context of science instruction: (1) narrowing the gap between what we know about learning and practices in the classroom; (2) the relevance of science learning to students' daily lives; and (3) cultural and social diversity in science learning. Projects will pay particular attention to science learning for at-risk children. The Public Expectations and Societal Incentives area will (1) identify the incentives or lack of incentives for students' selection of science or science related careers, (2) develop strategies for modifying this incentive structure, and (3) develop and evaluate a prototype program on influencing the incentive structure. Projects will cover topical areas in early science testing placement, school/industry partnerships, junior high school science specialists, health science-based integrated science, and integrated science and agriculture curricula. The Social Organization and Policy area will (1) identify agencies which can facilitate reform, and (2) identify, develop, and evaluate strategies for organizational policy, economic and/or political change related to improved science teaching and learning. One project will examine the effect of school restructuring and site-based management on science teaching. The New Technologies area will (1) determine how new technology can change students' nature of science experience, (2) explore how technology can be used to integrate classroom science with the "real world," (3) develop technology based on assessment and evaluation procedures that make testing more valid and efficient, and (4) develop technology-based activities which extend the "meaningfulness" of science teaching and learning. Among the topics covered will be the integration of advanced computer technologies into science education and the use of computer simulations in teaching physics. Key Personnel The Ohio State University Arthur L. White Donna F. Berlin Michael H. Klapper Carolyn Carter Stanley Helgeson Robert Donmoyer Patricia Blosser Phillip A. Heath James W. Altshuld Stanley Helgeson Donald P. Anderson C. William Kern University of Florida Kenneth Tobin University of Georgia Russell H. Yeany Center Liaison: Wanda Chambers CENTER ON EDUCATION FINANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY Grantee: University of Southern California School of Education Waite Phillips Hall 901 Los Angeles, California 90089-0031 213-743-3852 Co-directors: Allan Odden Susan Fuhrman Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of Southern California Rutgers University Michigan State University Stanford University University of Wisconsin at Madison Harvard University Subcontracts Stanford University Cornell University Rutgers University SMB Economics Educational Testing Service (ETS) Abstract The mission of this Center is to identify, investigate, and disseminate education finance policies and practices that can enhance educational quality and productivity. The work of the Center will address three sets of questions: (1) How does the current system function? How do current and proposed education finance approaches affect coherence and productivity at the school and institutional level? (2) How can education finance be responsive? How can it accommodate variation in students, teachers/professors, schools/institutions, districts and states? (3) What are current linkages between resource use policies and student or program outcomes? How are resources used in schools that "work" and postsecondary institutions that have "high quality" undergraduate programs? How does existing policy help or hinder these linkages and how can finance policies be designed to promote increased education quality and productivity? The Center will focus on three program areas: (1) current policy impact on coherence and productivity; (2) finance policy and educational equity and diversity; and (3) linkages between resource policies and student outcomes. Methodologies to be used include large-scale data analysis, case studies, surveys, policy analysis, and literature review. The center will also support the Finance Forum, which will be relocated from the former OERI Center on Postsecondary Governance and Finance at the University of Maryland. The first Forum will focus on educational productivity and a second on student financial aid issues. To facilitate its dissemination activities and communicate with outside communities, the grantee will integrate the Finance Center into the Policy Center at Rutgers University. The Center will also establish working relationships with 24 national organizations representing all levels of education. Key Personnel University of Southern California Allan Odden Lawrence Picus Guilbert Hentschke Priscilla Wohlstetter Rutgers University William S. Barnett Stanford University William Massy Patricia Gumport Cornell University David Monk Ronald Ehrenberg John Bishop Others Robert Zemsky Eric Hanushek James Guthrie Cyril Kent McGuire Craig Richards Margaret Goertz Stephen Barro Arthur Hauptman Center Liaison: Duc-Le To CENTER ON LITERATURE TEACHING AND LEARNING Grantee: State University of New York at Albany School of Education 1400 Washington Avenue Albany, New York 12222 518-442-5006 Director: Arthur N. Applebee Affiliated Organizations: None Abstract: The mission of the Center is to show how the effective teaching of literature can improve all students' ability to think creatively, both in and outside of literature classes. The Center will pay particular attention to improving student motivation and the improvement of the general literacy skills of at-risk children. The Center's research projects are organized into three programs: (1) the teaching and learning of literature; (2) literature curriculum and assessment; and (3) the link between literature and social and cultural heritage. The program for the Teaching and Learning of Literature will show how literature can be taught in ways that foster general critical and creative thinking skills that students' need in all their classes. The goal is to develop ways of teaching literature which become the basis for learning in other areas of the curriculum as well. The program on Curriculum and Assessment will develop ways to improve the literature curriculum -- its goals, content, sequence -- in both schools and school districts. Particular attention will be paid to improving the lessons, assignments, and materials used by teachers in elementary and secondary schools. This program will also develop improved methods of assessing students' knowledge and understanding of literature and developing alternative methods of measuring student general verbal skills. The program on Social and Cultural Traditions of literature will generate methods of teaching literature which use build on the students' out-of-school experiences in the home and community. The program will concentrate on ways in which social and cultural heritage can be used in more effectively in school programs. The Center will take a number of practical steps to ensure that the Center's work is made available to teachers and schools throughout the country. The Center will establish the "National Literature Network" which will share information among local, state, and national groups concerned about the best literature teaching and learning practices. Some of the groups which will be involved in the Center's work include members from the National Council of Teachers of English, the Modern Language Association, the International Reading Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Educational Association, the American Library Association, and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Center Liaison: Rita Foy CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON THE CONTEXT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHING Grantee: Stanford University School of Education CERAS Building Stanford, California 94305-3084 415■723-4972 Director: Milbrey W. McLaughlin Associate Director: Joan E. Talbert Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Michigan State University Abstract The Center's mission is to discover how working conditions and other circumstances in schools affect teachers, promote or hinder effective teaching and, ultimately, affect student outcomes. An important objective of the Center is to provide policymakers and practitioners with information about how school policies and practices, especially those associated with recent reforms, relate to the school context, teachers, and teaching. Key Personnel Milbrey W. McLaughlin Joan E. Talbert Richard Elmore Brian Rowan Center Liaison: Elizabeth J. Demarest CENTER FOR THE LEARNING AND TEACHING OF ELEMENTARY SUBJECTS Grantee: Michigan State University College of Education East Lansing, Michigan 48824 517-353-6470 CoDirectors: Jere Brophy Penelope L. Peterson Affiliated Organizations None Abstract The Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects identifies exemplary practices, particularly for teaching and learning problem-solving and higher-order thinking; develops and tests hypotheses through school-based research; and makes specific recommendations for improvement of school policies, instructional materials, assessment procedures, and teaching practices. The Center focuses on the issues of: (1) what content should be taught, (2) how teachers frame and focus their teaching to best utilize their resources, and (3) in what ways good teaching is subject-matter specific. The Center addresses these issues as they relate to the elementary education subject areas of arts education, literature, math, science, and social studies. Key Personnel Jere Brophy Penelope L. Peterson Center Liaison: Clara Lawson-Copeland 202-219-2021 (FAX) 202-219-2030 OERI/OR/LID 555 New Jersey Ave., NW Washington, DC 20208 CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON EFFECTIVE SCHOOLING FOR DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS Grantee: School of Arts and Sciences The Johns Hopkins University 3505 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218 301-338-7570 Director: Jomills H. Braddock II Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of California, Santa Barbara Northern Arizona University Teachers College, Columbia University The Council of Chief State School Officers Abstract The Center's mission is to significantly improve the education of disadvantaged students at each level of schooling through new knowledge and practices produced by thorough scientific study and evaluation. The Center's working definition of the "educationally disadvantaged" is students who are not succeeding or are under-achieving in school because of insufficient educational experiences in at least one of the three domains of school, family, and community. The strategy for carrying out the mission is: to focus on the school as the major source of improvement in the education of the disadvantaged; to address the needs and interests of the educationally disadvantaged at all levels of development; to address the unique needs of language minority students; and, to incorporate the family and the community into the school improvement effort. Key Personnel Nancy L. Karweit Robert E. Slavin Joyce L. Epstein Warren Hayman Richard Duran Alejandro Portes Saundra Nettles Center Liaison: Harold Himmelfarb NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Grantee: Graduate School of Education Harvard University Gutman Library, 6 Appian Way Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-3704 617-495-3575 Director: Lee G. Bolman Co-Director: Terrence C. Deal Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Vanderbilt University The University of Chicago Abstract The Center's mission is to conduct research and development in the area of school leadership. The research agenda of the Center for School Leadership focuses on three major questions: (1) what is good leadership, (2) how does good school leadership come about, and (3) what will good leadership mean in the future. These questions are being addressed through a series of research projects by staff at Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, and The University of Chicago. Key Personnel Lee Bolman Catherine Marshall Terrence Deal Jerry Murphy Carol H. Weiss Willis Hawley Dan C. Lortie Philip Hallinger Susan Moore Johnson Center Liaison: Ron Anson NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP Grantee: College of Education University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61801 217-244-1122 1-800-356-0069 Director: Paul Thurston Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members University of Michigan Metritech, Inc. The Illinois State Board of Education Abstract The Center investigates school leadership as it relates to school culture and climate and to teaching, learning, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to address both the theory and practice of leadership; and, conferences and publications are employed to tie research results to current practice. Scholarly papers, assessment instruments, and comparative analyses supplement the central research activities. Key Personnel Paul Thurston Samuel Krug Martin Maehr Carole Ames Samuel Krug Frederick Wirt Center Liaison: Ronald Anson CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION Grantee: Bank Street College of Education 610 West 112th Street New York, New York 10025 212-222-6700 Director: Jan Hawkins (Acting) Assistant Director: Kathleen Wilson Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Inc. Brown University Harvard University Abstract The mission of the Center for Technology in Education (CTE) is to study, design, and demonstrate the roles that technologies can play in improving student learning and achievement in schools. Its primary goal is to understand how technologies can be integrated into schools and classrooms in ways that deepen students' understanding of curricular content and enhance students' skills of critical thinking, inquiry, and analysis. Its research and development encompass several areas of the curriculum, including the humanities, sciences, and social studies. The CTE is committed to conducting and disseminating its work in ways that can affect the diverse settings, populations, and purposes that characterize the nation's schools. Key Personnel Allan Collins Jan Hawkins Howard Gardner Kathleen Wilson Karen Sheingold Center Liaisons: Ram N. Singh READING RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER Grantee: University of Illinois 174 Children's Research Center 51 Gerty Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820 217-333-2552 Co-Directors: Richard C. Anderson Rand Spiro Associate Director: Jean Osborn Affiliated Organizations Consortium Members Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc. Abstract The primary mission of the Reading Research and Education Center (RREC) is to conduct research that will help us to become "a nation of readers." The Center's aim is to produce knowledge that will benefit practitioners and others. It does this by engaging in applied and basic research activities that pertain to research on the teaching of reading and on how students learn to read. The RREC's program of work is designed to address research issues that are primarily related to practice in four major areas. Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills--how students learn the skills that enable them to acquire knowledge from textbooks in different academic subjects. Instruction in Reading--how teachers can become more effective in helping students learn to read. Text Characteristics--how written text affects student learning and how textbooks can be improved to optimize learning. Testing of Reading Proficiency--how reading performance can be measured better, in alignment with our current knowledge about what constitutes the act of reading. The Center also has three major institutional activities that are designed to ensure that knowledge about reading becomes infused into practice: (1) improving school reading materials, (2) improving professional development, and (3) raising the level of literacy. Key Personnel William Brewer Richard C. Anderson Jana Mason Thomas Anderson George McConkie Bonnie Armbruster Linda Meyer Rand Spiro Stella Vosniadou P. David Pearson Dolores Durkin Diane Stevens Bertram Bruce William Nagy Jean Osborn Andee Rubin Center Liaison: Anne P. Sweet NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER ON THE GIFTED AND TALENTED (CCL-1/91) Grantee: The University of Connecticut 231 Glenbrook Road Storrs Hall, Box U-7 Storrs, CT 06269-2007 (203) 486-5279 Director: Joseph Renzulli Affiliated Organizations: Consortium Members The University of Georgia The University of Virginia Yale University Abstract The Center's mission is to carry out problem-based, practice-relevant, and consumer-oriented research on the gifted and talented, and to disseminate research findings in appropriate ways to practitioners, administrators, policy makers, and other researchers. The Center focuses much of its work on addressing identification and programming issues for students who may not be identified through traditional assessment methods. The Center consists of six components: (1) The Directorate serves as the major administration, coordination, and dissemination unit. (2) The four Participating Universities are the locations for the design, development, and data analysis stages of research projects. (3) The more than 200 Collaborative School Districts serve as research sites, and provide practitioner participation in the management and evaluation of the research studies. (4) Advisory Councils, formed at both the state and national levels, provide guidance to the Center in developing its research agenda and disseminating the results of the Center's activities. (5) Stakeholders, both individuals and organizations with an interest in gifted and talented education, also provide input into the Center's activities. (6) Content Area Consultants provide technical assistance to the principal investigators and participate in the research studies as appropriate. During its first year of operation, the Center is carrying out an extensive needs assessment activity which is to result in a report titled Setting an Agenda: Research Priorities for the Gifted and Talented Through the Year 2000. This work will inform the Center's research agenda in years two through five, and will be available to other researchers, practitioners, and the public. The research projects already underway: A Study of Classroom Practices Used with Gifted and Talented Students is a two phase project examining current teaching practices for the gifted and talented in regular classrooms. The first phase, The Classroom Practices Research Study, uses a survey, interviews, and classroom observation to examine what happens to traditionally identified and underserved gifted students in regular classroom settings. The second phase, The Curriculum Compacting Research Study uses a control group design and causal model methodology to examine the effectiveness of systematic procedures for curricular modification aimed at increasing the level of challenge for gifted students in regular classroom situations. Investigating Giftedness in Economically Disadvantaged and Limited English Proficiency Students uses qualitative methods to investigate economically disadvantaged and limited English proficiency students who display various potentials. Investigations into Instruments and Designs Used in the Identification of Gifted Students and the Evaluation of Gifted Programs is designed to examine the technical properties of instruments and the effectiveness of identification and evaluation designs, and will result in a National Repository for Instruments and Strategies Used in Identification and Evaluation of Gifted Programs. Evaluating the Effects of Programming Arrangements on Student Learning Outcomes is comparing the learning outcome effects of four standard program strategies for teaching gifted and talented students. A Theory-Based Approach to Identification, Teaching, and Evaluating the Gifted seeks to identify various types of gifted students, provide instruction tailored to each type, and analyze the achievements of students grouped according to type. Key Personnel The University of Connecticut E. Jean Gubbins Francis Archambault Sally Reis Alexinia Baldwin Karen Westberg The University of Georgia Mary Frasier The University of Virginia Carolyn Callahan Marcia Delcourt Dewey Cornell Yale University Robert Sternberg Pamela Clinkenbeard Center Liaison: Ivor Pritchard