A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

   FOR RELEASE                                Contact:  David Thomas    December 12, 1995                                  (202) 401-1579

Collectively, the awards are the department's largest investment in assistance designed to help educators and policymakers improve schools and enable all students to meet challenging standards. The centers are expected to receive more than $205 million over the next five years.

"These educational laboratories will tackle the most difficult educational issues facing our schools," Riley said. "In partnership with teachers, local officials, parents and other community members, the labs will design and conduct applied research that will develop better ways to improve our schools, teaching and learning."

The labs will work with hundreds of schools and districts that will be proving grounds for exploring effective ways to implement educational reform and to ensure that students and teachers benefit from these efforts.

For the first time, each of the new awards will establish a specialty area for each laboratory, which is expected to work toward achieving national prominence within its respective field.

The laboratories also are being asked to help coordinate field-based services for department-funded technical assistance providers, such as the new Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers, the Regional Technology Consortia, and the Regional Mathematics and Science Education Consortia.

Under the new contracts, laboratories are asked to:

• link researchers and teachers in activities designed to find out -- in actual schools and classrooms -- how research findings can be translated into effective practice;

• provide states and localities with objective, research- based information, training and technical assistance to help them with their school improvement and reform efforts;

• develop and try out innovative strategies to help districts and schools that serve high concentrations of economically disadvantaged children and rural populations; and,

• use advanced technologies as an integral part of their operations and help other educational agencies to do the same.

In 1995, the laboratories served more than 3 million customers through telephone, mail, e-mail and visitor inquiries, field-based development and consultation services, publications sold or provided on request, and log-ons to laboratory electronic information services.

In addition, the laboratories served more than 250,000 customers through personal interaction, ranging from responding to simple information requests to conducting more than 1,400 research and evaluation studies designed to meet customer needs.

The Regional Educational Laboratories are authorized by the Educational Research, Development, Dissemination and Improvement Act (P.L. 103-227) and were first funded in 1966 to develop applications of research to improve schools.

Winners were selected based on the recommendations of prominent educators and researchers who evaluated the proposals.