status, and age. 



• Pre-occupational interests in children and 

 t'^eir relationship to or transformation into 

 occupational choices. 



• Competencies that are useful in a great num- 

 ber of occupations and their role in the pro- 

 cess of job change and occupational mobility. 



• Effect of selected cognitive, affective, educa- 

 tional, familial, or social factors on the 

 achievement and participation of women in 

 mathematics instruction and in occupations 

 requiring mathematical competence. 



Examples of projects include the following: 



Zvi Griliches and Richard Freeman, Department of Econom- 

 ics, Harvard University, have been carrying out an economet- 

 ric investigation of determinants and returns from schooling, 

 training, and experience. 



Stephen P. Dresch. Institute for Demographic and Economic 

 Studies. New Haven, Conn., is studying mechanisms by which 

 perceptions of career opportunities and career expectations are 

 molded, constrained, and modified, and the effects of discrep- 

 ancies between these perceptions and expectations and actual 

 events. 



Dissemination and Resources 



The dissemination and resources group is con- 

 cerned with making available the results of R&D 

 on education in forms that will be useful to teach- 

 ers, administrators, policymakers, parents, stu- 

 dents, and other interested persons. It also sup- 

 ports and conducts activities to monitor the edu- 

 cation R&D system, analyze its strengths and 

 weaknesses, and recommend needed improve- 

 ments. 



Research sponsored by this group has included: 



• Formulation and testing of conceptual frame- 

 works in seeking to understand dissemination 

 processes and the functioning of the R&D 

 system for education 



• Syntheses of research results and the search 

 for new methodologies for knowledge trans- 

 formation. 



Organization and IVIanagement of 

 Research Activities 



NIE's legislation created the National Council 

 on Educational Research, consisting of 15 mem- 

 bers appointed by the President with advice and 

 consent of the Senate, to "establish general poli- 

 cies for, and review the conduct of, the Insti- 

 tute." The Director of NIE and the Deputy Direc- 

 tor are Presidential appointees. The Director 

 "shall be responsible to the Assistant Secretary 

 (for Education) and shall report to the Secretary 



through the Assistant Secretary." The statutory 

 Deputy Director is primarily concerned with pro- 

 gram, and there is now also a Deputy Director for 

 Management. The organization of NIE consists of 

 program groups, an Office of Planning, Budget and 

 Policy Analysis, and an Office of Administration 

 and Management. Each program group and office 

 is headed by an Associate Director. Program plans 

 are developed with guidance from the Director and 

 Deputy Director by the staffs of program groups, 

 and take account of: 



• Congressional and executive mandates and 

 concerns. 



• Problems confronting education as seen by 

 policymakers, educators, parents and stu- 

 dents, persons in research and development, 

 and other interested persons and groups, in- 

 cluding minority communities. 



• Promising directions for R&D arrived at in 

 consultation with the R&D community 

 through a variety of mechanisms, including 

 agendizing conferences and studies involving 

 leading scientists and educators. 



Plans prepared by the groups are modified in 

 response to reviews by the Director and Deputy 

 Director and their staffs and are, of course, fur- 

 ther reviewed in less detail by the National Coun- 

 cil, HEW, the Office of Management and Budget, 

 and the Congress. 



NIE provides support for 17 R&D centers and 

 regional educational laboratories. These are not 

 Government-owned institutions, although they 

 were created by the Office of Education and in 

 many cases provided with buildings at Govern- 

 ment expense. The R&D centers are located in 

 universities, while the laboratories are independ- 

 ent, nonprofit institutions. Funding has been ac- 

 complished by contract, with changes in program 

 requiring contract modifications. Through fiscal 

 year 1977, the research program has been deter- 

 mined by NIE, although in many cases this has 

 meant that a laboratory or center continued work 

 on a program originally initiated by the institution. 

 New legislation requires that beginning in FY 

 1978, plans will be solicited from the laboratories 

 and centers within the context of NIE policies 

 and programs. These will be reviewed by an inde- 

 pendent national panel appointed by the Director 

 of NIE, as well as by NIE staff. Final funding 

 decisions will be made by the Director. 



NIE supports basic research through a variety 

 of mechanisms: 



Research Grant Competitions 



Currently, NIE research grant competitions typ- 

 ically derive from one or more interdisciplinary 

 conferences of leading investigators and educators 



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