New Mission Sought For Diffusion Network On l0th Anniversary

By Julie A. Miller

SAN ANTONIO--When the National Dissemination Study Group gathered this month to mark the organization's loth anniversary, the primary topic was not nostalgia but the prospect of radical change.

The association, a group of educators who are involved with the National Diffusion Network, convened here to discuss the network's successes, its frustrations, and its limitations. Above all, they came to talk about how they might change the small, $14-million-a-year federal program, which offers a catalog of exemplary methods and curricula, into a dissemination system that has a broad impact on schools.

After three days of brainstorming, a consensus emerged on several broad ideas for expanding the network's mission and improving its operation. But factions also emerged within the study group that advocated a more drastic step: abandoning the current program in favor of a new entity divorced from...