The National Institute of Education (nie) has asked 75 people to assist it in establishing new agendas for the 17 federally supported laboratories and centers that conduct education research.
The group of “consultants” will include teachers, school officials, researchers, legislators, representatives of business and labor, and parents.
Most of them will spend this month working in “study groups” and will provide “a menu of options” for Manuel Justiz, nie’s director, on the subjects to be studied by the laboratories and centers, according to Thomas G. Carroll, nie’s liaison to the laboratories and centers.
The new agendas are being developed in conjunction with nie’s decision to award contracts for the operation of the laboratories and centers on a competitive basis; in the past, sponsorship has been granted to institutions on a non-competitive basis.
Twenty of the consultants will serve on a “National Panel on Laboratories and Centers,” which will suggest research topics for the facilities and recommend to Mr. Justiz procedures for the competition.
With the recommendations of the study group and panel in hand, Mr. Justiz will meet on Oct. 17 and 18 with the National Council on Education Research, the policymaking arm of nie, to consider further the competition for the labs and centers and their research agendas.
Soon after that, according to Mr. Carroll, Mr. Justiz, who by law has the final say over nie’s research program, will announce through the Federal Register and other channels the subjects to be studied by the various labs and centers.
The competition for sponsorship will begin then; the winners will be announced by Oct. 1, 1984, about one month before the contracts with most of the current lab and center sponsors expire, Mr. Carroll said.
The members of the National Panel on Laboratories and Centers are:
Richard C. Anderson, director, Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois and president, American Educational Research Association; Roberta Anderson, dean, school of education, University of South Dakota; Barbara R. Barnes, headmistress, Laurel School, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and president, Ohio Association of Independent Schools; Rosemary Clarke, immediate past president, National Association of State Boards of Education; Norman C. Francis, president, Xavier University; Antonio E. Garcia, superintendent, Rio Grande Independent School District, Rio Grande City, Tex.; Hendrik Gideonse, dean, college of education, University of Cincinnati; Ray Guerette, dentist, Los Alamos, N.M.; Richard H. Hersh, dean, graduate school, and associate provost for research, University of Oregon; Gene L. Hoffman, assistant minority leader, Illinois House of Representatives; Onalee McGraw, staff member, House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, and member, National Council on Educational Research; Harold D. Patterson, superintendent, Spartanburg, S.C.; Benjamin F. Payton, president, Tuskegee Institute; Marilyn Rauth, director of educational issues, American Federation of Teachers; Ted Sanders, superintendent of public instruction, Nevada; Sue H. Talbot, president, National State Teachers of the Year; Manya S. Ungar, vice president, National Congress of Parents and Teachers; Marvin Wachman, chancellor, Temple University.
Nellie C. Weil, southern regional director, National School Boards Association; and Lana Wertz, director of educational planning and technology, Aetna Institute for Corporate Education.
