The National Institute of Education last week awarded 21 planning grants totaling more than $500,000 to organizations competing for eight regional educational laboratories to be established between 1985 and 1990.
According to the nie, the grants--of up to $25,000 each--will lay the groundwork for the regional labs by determining the most pressing educational needs of each region; analyzing demographic, political, social, and other trends in the region and determining which are most important; gathering ideas from researchers and policymakers on what types of work the labs should perform; and providing plans for how each lab will be organized and governed.
The planning grants were awarded to universities and educational research and consulting firms.
Competition for about $77 million in grants to operate the educational laboratories is to begin in the spring.
The first laboratory contract was awarded in September to the Educational Laboratory for Economic Development in the Midwest Inc.--a consortium of chief state school officers and university officials from throughout the Midwest--to operate the lab in the region. (See Education Week, Sept. 26, 1984.)
