Project Name: The National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology.
Sponsors/Funding: The National Science Board (nsb) and the National Science Foundation (nsf). (The nsb is the policy-making arm of the nsf).
Project Director: Richard S. Nicholson, executive director.
Description: The purpose of the commission is to develop a “plan of action” for all sectors of society to improve the quality of education in math, science, and technology in elementary and secondary schools, according to Alan Leshner, deputy executive director.
The 20-member commission began its work in April 1982, and is due to report early this fall. The commissioners have supported special studies and have visited a wide range of model programs, Mr. Leshner said. (See Education Week, April 13 and May 25, 1983.)
Telephone: Commission on Precollege Education, (202) 357-7700.
Project Name: The Project on Information Technology and Education.
Sponsor/Funding: The Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Project Director: Marc S. Tucker.
Description: For over a year, Mr. Tucker has been analyzing the use of information technology--particularly computers and telecommunications systems--in elementary, secondary, and higher education. He has written several articles on the subject. He said he may produce a substantial report on his work sometime in the next year. (See Education Week, April 27, 1983.)
Telephone: (202) 463-0747.
Project Name: The National Study of the Estimated Supply and Demand of Secondary Science and Mathematics Teachers.
Sponsors/Funding: The study is a joint effort between Iowa State University and the Iowa Department of Public Instruction.
Project Directors: Trevor G. Howe, director of education placement at Iowa State, and Jack A. Gerlovich, science education consultant in the Iowa Department of Public Instruction.
Description: Now in its fourth year, the survey estimates state-by-state supply of and demand for secondary teachers in biology, chemistry, physics, general science, earth science, and mathematics.
The fall 1983 survey is expected to be completed by early August. (See page 58 for preliminary results.)
Telephone: Trevor G. Howe, (515) 294-7020.
Project Name: The Committee for Economic Development (ced) Business in the Schools Project.
Sponsor: ced
Funding: Grants from several foundations, including the Ford Foundation, Exxon Foundation, The Procter & Gamble Foundation, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
Directors: Owen B. Butler, chairman of The Procter & Gamble Company; Denis P. Doyle, project director.
Description: ced is made up of 200 of the nation’s leading business executives and university presidents. The purpose of the project--which has been in the planning and fundraising stage for more than a year--is to assess what the American business community can do to help strengthen elementary and secondary education.
According to the project’s director, Denis Doyle, the two-year effort will result in a major policy document with “recommendations and proposals for all the actors in the education system.”
Telephone: Sol Hurwitz, ced senior vice president. (212) 688-2063.
Project Name: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (naep).
Sponsor: Federally mandated by P.L. 95-561, the Education Amendments Act of 1978.
Funding: The National Institute of Education (nie) and the U.S. Education Department (ed).
Project Directors: Beverly L. Anderson, Education Commission of the States (ecs), and Archie Lapointe, the Educational Testing Service (ets).
Description: Student achievement and attitudes are measured regularly through tests given to 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds. ecs formerly administered the program, but ets will administer it beginning in the fall. (See Education Week, March 2, 1983.)
naep completed its third mathematics assessment earlier this year. Assessments of science and math will be done during the 1985-86 school year. (See Education Week, April 20, 1983.)
Telephone: Archie Lapointe, (609) 734-5890; ecs, (303) 830-3600.
Project Name: Computers in Education: A Report, Recommendations, Resources.
Sponsor/Funding/Project Director: Produced by Michael T. Sherman in conjunction with the National Association of Independent Schools (nais). Mr. Sherman is director of the computer center at Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Mass.
Description: Mr. Sherman spent a year examining the computer-education activities in leading primary and secondary independent schools in the U.S. His report, released in May, is available from Nathaniel B. Bates Publishing Co.
Telephone: Nathaniel B. Bates Publishing Co., (617) 369-2512.
Project Name: The National Task Force on Education for Economic Growth.
Sponsor: ecs
Funding: ecs, the Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance,’ the American Association for the Advancement of Science (aaas), the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, the Atlantic Richfield Corporation, the Communication Workers of America, the Control Data Corporation, the Dow Chemical Company, E. G. & G., the Ford Motor Company, the International Business Machines Corporation, the Kellogg Foundation, the RCA Corporation, Texas Instruments, Time Inc., and the Xerox Corporation.
Project Director: Allan Odden, associate executive director of ecs
Description: The task force, which was chaired by Gov. James B. Hunt of North Carolina, reported in June that America’s public schools are doing an inadequate job of preparing students for a technological economy. A draft of the report was released in May. (See Education Week, May 11, 1983, for excerpts of the study.)
The report, “Action for Excellence,” is available for $5 from the ecs Distribution Center, 1860 Lincoln Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colo. 80925.
Telephone: ecs, (303) 830-3600.
Project Name: 50-State Survey of State Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education Initiatives.
Sponsors/Funding: ecs and nsf
Project Director: Jane Armstrong.
Description: The project, which should be completed by Sept. 1, will gather state-by-state information on a number of math- and science-education topics, such as changes in high-school graduation requirements; special programs, institutes, and schools for gifted math, science, or computer students; state department of education initiatives in math and science; software development or evaluation; and statewide commissions or task forces designed to deal with any of these issues.
Telephone: ecs, (303) 830-3600.
Project Name: State Programs of School Improvement.
Sponsor/Funding: ecs
Project Director: Van Dougherty.
Description: The project will update a 1982 ecs 50-state survey of school-improvement activities sponsored by the states, including state-developed curricula or curricular guidelines, changes in accreditation standards, “effective schools” programs, local building programs, and new strategies of student testing. The project should be finished by Sept. 1.
Telephone: ecs, (303) 830-3600.
Project Name: The Education Workforce Survey.
Sponsor/Funding: ecs
Project Director: Patty Flakus-Mosqueda.
Description: The survey will contain state-by-state information on teacher training, certification, and staff development; on incentives to attract new teachers or to reward exemplary teaching; and on programs to retrain teachers or to deal with statewide teacher shortages.
Telephone: ecs, (303) 830-3600.
Project Name: High School and Beyond.
Sponsors: ed, the National Center for Education Statistics (nces).
Funding: ed, nces, and others.
Project Director: Calvin C. Jones, senior survey director, the National Opinion Research Center (norc).
Description: “High School and Beyond” is a 10-year study of large samples of youths who were high-school sophomores and seniors in 1980. In the base-year survey, random samples of approximately 36 sophomores and 36 seniors were selected from each of more than 1,000 secondary schools. More than 30,000 sophomores and 28,000 seniors participated. The primary focus of the study is on “educational processes and outcomes"; detailed data will also be collected on college careers, work experience, military service, and a variety of personal and family characteristics. Several studies have already emerged using norc data, including James S. Coleman’s Public and Private Schools.
The “First Follow-Up,” for which the senior group was reduced to 12,000 cases, is complete (all members of the sophomore group were retained in the First Follow-Up). Several tapes containing data from the base survey and the First Follow-Up are available from nces, Brown Building, Room 612, 1200 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
The Second Follow-Up, in which the sophomore sample will be reduced to 15,500 cases, has been completed and data will be released soon.
Telephone: norc, (312) 962-1200; nces, (202) 254-6057.
Project Name: A Study of High Schools.
Sponsors: The National Association of Secondary School Principals (nassp), and the Commission on Educational Issues of nais
Funding: The Charles E. Culpepper Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Commonwealth Fund, the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Edward J. Noble Foundation.
Project Directors: Theodore R. Sizer, chairman, and Arthur G. Powell, executive director.
Description: The intent of this project, begun in 1979, is to synthesize what is known about learning and about “good” high schools, to examine changes in American high schools since World War II, and to suggest reforms.
Field studies were done in 15 secondary schools in 1981-82; the researchers visited 50 more schools that year. Field work is now complete. The researchers’ more than 15,000 pages of notes on the high schools will contribute to three books, the first of which is due to be published in late fall of 1983. One, a volume based on the field studies, will be published in 1984. There will also be a history of American high schools since 1940 and a brief summary volume. (See Education Week, June 8, 1983.)
Telephone: nais, (617) 723-3625.
Project Name: A Study of Schooling [grades 1 through 12].
Sponsor: The Institute for Development of Educational Activities Inc. (idea), an affiliate of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.
Funding: The Danforth Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the International Paper Company Foundation, the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund, the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, nie, the Needmore Fund, Pedamorphosis Inc., the Rockefeller Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the former U.S. Office of Education.
Project Director: John I. Goodlad, dean of the graduate school of education at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Description: This large study, which contains data from observations in more than 1,000 classrooms, will result in several books. A comprehensive report on the project (A Place Called School) is scheduled for publication by McGraw-Hill this month.
Telephone: John I. Goodlad, (213) 206-1134.
Project Name: Redefining General Education in the American High School.
Sponsor: The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ascd).
Funding: ascd, the Ford Foundation, the Johnson Foundation, and 17 local school districts.
Project Director: Gordon Cawelti, executive director, ascd
Description: This study of “the adequacy of present general-education programs in 17 high schools” began in 1981. Final reports should be ready in late November, and regional networks of high schools that want to participate in the project thereafter will be established during the 1983-84 school year.
Telephone: Gordon Cawelti, (703) 549-9110.
Project Name: A Study of the American High School.
Sponsor: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Funding: The Atlantic Richfield Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Project Director: Paul L. Houts.
Description: This study will include a profile of the high school today, a discussion of both its successes and its problems, and recommendations for reform. The study deals with goals and purposes, leadership, teachers, curriculum, and instruction. It consists of a literature review, an intensive study of 15 schools throughout the U.S., visits to “exemplary” schools, and analysis of data from the “High School and Beyond” and “A Study of Schooling” data bases.
A report of the study will be published in early 1984 by Harper and Row.
Telephone: Paul L. Houts, (202) 387-7200.
Project Name: The Educational EQuality Project.
Sponsor: The College Board.
Funding: The College Board, the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Northwest Area Foundation.
Project Director: Adrienne Y. Bailey, vice president of academic affairs, the College Board.
Description: The project, which runs from 1980 to 1990, is a “leadership endeavor” meant to foster college and university cooperation on efforts to improve secondary education, with particular emphasis on such factors as the preparation of students for college and the issue of equality and opportunity.
The College Board has brought together more than 1,000 high-school and college educators to define the six Basic Academic Competencies (reading, writing, speaking and listening, mathematics, reasoning, and studying). The report was released earlier this year and can be ordered from the College Board, Office of Academic Affairs, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, N.Y. 10106. (See Education Week, May 18, 1983, for excerpts of the report.)
Telephone: Adrienne Y. Bailey, (212) 582-6210.
Project Name: The Twentieth Century Fund Independent Task Force on Federal Education Policy.
Sponsor/Funding: The Twentieth Century Fund.
Project Directors: Among the several members of the task force were: Chester E. Finn Jr. of the Center on Education Policy at Vanderbilt University; Diane Ravitch, associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University; and Robert Wood, director of urban studies at the University of Massachusetts.
Description: The Task Force began examining federal education policy in October 1981. Its report, including policy recommendations, was released this spring and is available from the Twentieth Century Fund, 41 East 70th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021, $6.00 prepaid. (See Education Week, May 11, 1983, for excerpts of the study.)
Telephone: (212) 535-4441.
Project Name: Education, Character, and American Schools.
Sponsors/Funding: nie, the Ford Foundation.
Project Director: Gerald Grant, professor of sociology, Syracuse University.
Description: The study was begun in 1979 and continues through 1984; it seeks to answer questions surrounding “why schools differ” and why schools “create one kind of ethos or climate rather than another.”
Five public and private schools were chosen for extensive observation during the 1979-80 school year. Several articles have emerged from the study and a book is also planned. The articles are available for the cost of copying and mailing from the “Good School Project,” 259 Huntington Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. 13210.
Telephone: (315) 423-3343.
Project Name: The Task Force on Higher Education and the Schools: The Need for Quality.
Sponsor/Funding: The Southern Regional Education Board.
Project Director: Eva C. Galambos, staff director of the task force.
Description: The 17-member task force was assigned to consider the links between schools and colleges and to select “priority issues and problems on which states, schools, and colleges must act jointly in order to strengthen education at all levels.”
The group has already issued a report, “The Need for Quality,” which contained 25 recommendations for action by higher education and the schools. About half the recommendations deal with the selection, preparation, certification, and continuing education of teachers.
The group also proposes to compare the courses taken by education majors with those of students majoring in other fields, using samples from Southern institutions that graduate large numbers of education majors. (See Education Week, June 15, 1983.)
Telephone: (404) 875-9211.
Project Name: An Education of Value.
Sponsor: The National Academy of Education.
Funding: The National Endowment for the Humanities; the Lilly Endowment.
Project Directors: Marvin Lazerson, University of British Columbia; Judith Block McLaughlin, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; and Bruce McPherson, Boston University.
Description: The project was begun in the fall of 1980. The project will result in a book, described as “a thoughtful essay which attempts to engage the debate about the values and purposes of American education, and to consider the process by which these might be achieved.”
Telephone: Judith Block McLaughlin, (617) 495-5380.
Project Name: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents.
Sponsor/Funding: nie
Project Director: Joan Lipsitz, director, the Center for Early Adolescence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Description: The study is designed to extend “effective-schools” research to the middle school. Case studies of four middle schools were conducted in 1980-81, concentrating on purposes, goals, school climate, and curriculum. A book based on the study will be published by Transaction Books in the fall of 1983.
Telephone: (919) 966-1148.
Project Name: The Study of Stanford and the Schools.
Sponsors/Funding: BankAmerica Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Educational Foundation of America, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the California Department of Education, the Center for Chicano Study, Stanford University, and the Stanford Center for Youth Development.
Project Directors: Donald Kennedy, president of Stanford University, and J. Myron Atkin, dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education.
Description: The study, scheduled for completion in 1985, is meant “to provide an illuminating, data-based overview of the state of American secondary schools; to make recommendations about educational policy and practice; and to identify how schools of education at research institutions can play a major role in improving American education.” Six study groups have been formed to examine particular topics: curriculum, educational technology, personal responsibility and behavior, organization of the high school, and testing. (See Education Week, April 27, 1983.)
Telephone: J. Myron Atkin, (415) 497-2111.
Project Name: National Commission on Excellence in Education.
Sponsor/Funding: ed
Project Directors: David P. Gardner, who is president, University of Utah, and president-elect, the University of California, chairman; Milton Goldberg, executive director.
Description: The commission was created to review the scholarly literature on the quality of learning and teaching in the nation’s schools; to examine and contrast the curricula, standards, and related attributes of education systems in other countries with those in the U.S.; to study university and college admission standards to see what effect they have on high-school curricula and achievement; and to review “excellent” education programs.
The commission’s final report, a highly publicized document that contained a very negative assessment of American education, was released on March 31 and is available from the Government Printing Office in Washington D.C. (See Education Week, April 27, 1983, for the complete text of the report.)
Telephone: Government Printing Office, (202) 783-3238.
Project Name: Goal Based Education Program.
Sponsor/Funding: nie
Project Director: Robert E. Blum, director, Goal Based Education Program, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
Description: The project, which runs from 1982 through 1984, is intended to determine the extent to which effective-schooling research and teaching practices can be applied to high schools, and with what effect. Five schools are using such practices and monitoring their results. A preliminary report is expected in next month.
Telephone: (503) 248-6800.
Project Name: Paideia.
Sponsor: The Institute for Philosophical Research.
Funding: The McArthur Foundation and others.
Project Director: Mortimer J. Adler, director of the Institute for Philosophical Research.
Description: The Paideia group has already produced its curriculum recommendations in The Paideia Proposal. Two more books will be published by MacMillan, probably within the next 12 to 18 months. The first, Paideia Problems and Possibilities, will deal with questions raised by educators across the country. The second, The Paideia Program, will present more material on the Paideia curriculum. (See Education Week, Nov. 3 and Nov. 24, 1982, and March 2, 1983.)
Telephone: (312) 337-4106.
Project Name: Computerized Factory Automation: Employment, Education, and the Workplace.
Sponsor: The Joint Economic Committe of the U.S. Congress.
Funding: Operating budget of the Office of Technology Assessment (ota), a research agency which reports to the Congress on various aspects of technology.
Project Director: Marjory Blumenthal.
Description: This project will assess the impact of computer-based technology in manufacturing, including possible changes in education and vocational training that could result. The study, which will also examine computer and technology literacy in the current work force, should be published in early 1984, according to ota
In November, ota released “Information Technology and Its Impact on American Education.” (See Education Week, Dec. 22, 1982.)
Contact: Beth A. Brown, senior analyst, ota, Washington, D.C. 20510.
Project Name: Second Mathematics Study of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
Sponsors/Funding: nie, nsf, nces
Project Director: Kenneth J. Travers, chairman of the international mathematics committee and director of the U.S. study.
Description: The survey of mathematics curricula and student achievement in 24 countries began in 1979 and was completed last year in the U.S. Some countries have completed their work but most are still assembling the data. Officials say the report will not be completed for at least three more years.
Telephone: (217) 333-6743.
Project Name: Second Science Study of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
Sponsor/Funding: The Spencer Foundation.
Project Director: Willard Jacobson, national research coordinator.
Description: This study of science curricula and student achievement and attitudes toward the subject in 30 countries began in 1981. Officials say the complete report will not be completed for several years.
Telephone: (212) 678-3422.
Project Name: The Images of Science; Report of the 1981-82 National Assessment.
Sponsors/Funding: nsf in collaboration with naep
Project Director: Wayne W. Welch, professor of education, University of Minnesota.
Description: Mr. Welch last year surveyed a random sample of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds in 273 public schools across the country about their knowledge of and attitudes about science. He presented his findings in April. (See Education Week, April 20, 1983). Smaller reports including such issues as science enrollment patterns and computer “inequity” are being prepared and should be completed this summer. The 250-page “Images of Science” report is now available, and can be obtained for $9.50 by writing Mr. Welch at the University of Minnesota, Room 210, Burton Hall, Minneapolis, Minn. 55455.
Telephone: (612) 376-5277.
Project Name: The American Federation of Teachers (aft) Report on the Mathematics/Science Teacher Shortage, Curriculum Standards, Business Involvement, and Computer Activity.
Sponsor/Funding: aft
Project Director: Eugenia Kemble.
Description: aft conducted a “spot survey of key report areas” in the fall of 1982, Ms. Kemble said. The group is planning a follow-up investigation of business involvment with schools.
aft has also produced an analysis, with recommendations, of the math and science education problem in general, Ms. Kemble said.
Address: aft, 11 Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. 20036.
