mathematics as a basis for constructing tests of 

 mathematical progress. 



Educational adequacy. There is increasing pub- 

 lic, legislative, and judicial interest in seeing that 

 all students are educated to a level and capability 

 necessary for participation in the society. The 

 Educational Adequacy Division is supporting re- 

 search projects aimed at providing a basis for ar- 

 riving at educationally meaningful and legally en- 

 forceable standards through understanding of the 

 correlation between skills learned and adult per- 

 formance and of the likely effect of various laws 

 and decisions. The FY 1978 competition calls for 

 studies of the role of courts and legislatures in 

 making educational policy, their use of scientific 

 information, and the impact of their decisions on 

 educational practice. 



Finance and Productivity 



The finance and productivity group is con- 

 cerned with a variety of aspects of school and 

 postsecondary finance and means by which edu- 

 cation can make better use of its limited re- 

 sources: 



• A center is being supported at the University 

 of Chicago to conduct basic and applied re- 

 search and to provide a nationwide focus for 

 scholarship in education, finance, and pro- 

 ductivity. The center will study the ways in 

 which education resources are raised, allocat- 

 ed, and distributed, and will seek to identify 

 effective and efficient means of utilizing re- 

 sources. 



• The Center for Social Organization of 

 Schools at Johns Hopkins University is study- 

 ing the effects of classroom authority, task 

 and reward structures, and student interac- 

 tions on student motivation, achievement, 

 and behavior. Other research of this nature 

 may be supported through grants competi- 

 tions in the future. 



School Capacity for Problem Solving 



The goal of this group is development or dis- 

 covery of better ways in which schools and 

 school systems can define their own problems, 

 conceive and implement their own solutions, and 

 assess progress toward improved organizational 

 performance. 



In 1974-75, NIE held six meetings with social 

 and behavior scientists and educators to develop 

 fruitful directions for research in organizational 

 processes in education. Topics, drawn from mod- 

 ern organizational theory, included: 



• Factors favoring and opposing change and 

 adaptation in educational organizations 



114 HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE 



• Decisionmaking in educational organizations 

 with ambiguous goals and uncertain means of 

 achieving them 



• Educational organizations as loosely coupled 

 systems in which organizational charts do not 

 give a true picture of the sources of action. 



These meetings led to establishment of a con- 

 tinuing research grants competition in organiza- 

 tional processes in elementary and secondary 

 education. 



Educational Equity 



The educational equity group seeks to provide a 

 clearer understanding of the factors that limit 

 educational opportunity for racial or ethnic minor- 

 ities, women, students whose home language is 

 not English, and students from low-income fami- 

 lies. Research priorities include: 



• Linguistic and other studies of learning by 

 students from homes where English is not 

 the primary language. 



• Studies of social processes that contribute to 

 educational inequity for women, studies of 

 achievement patterns of men and women, and 

 studies that evolved from a series of minority 

 womens' conferences held during 1976. 



• Studies of vandalism and disruption in 

 schools, emphasizing identification of school 

 characteristics that seem to invite disruptive 

 behavior and those that promote students' 

 social development. 



• Studies of effects of varying desegregation 

 patterns on school practice and student 

 achievement, effects of teacher expectations 

 on desegrated classrooms, and unequal status 

 conditions in desegregated schools. 



One example of a paper in this area is Jean 

 Lipman-Blumen and Harold J. Leavitt, Vicarious 

 and Direct Achievement Patterns, Counseling 

 Psychologist, 1976, 6, 26. (Dr. Lipman-Blumen is 

 an NIE staff member.) 



Education and Work 



Programs within the education and work group 

 are designed to: 



• Improve understanding of the relationship 

 between education and work. 



• Help increase the contribution education 

 makes to individuals' abilities to choose, en- 

 ter, and progress in work that is beneficial to 

 themselves and others. 



Research grant competitions, based on confer- 

 ences and state of knowledge studies, have called 

 for proposals in the following areas: 



• Factors and competencies in career decision- 

 making processes, and their variation accord- 

 ing to sex, sociocultural group, economic 



