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

Meeting the Information Needs of Education Policymakers - August 1997

Preface

The National Institute on Educational Governance, Finance, Policymaking, and Management is part of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in the U.S. Department of Education. The Institute was created by the Education Research, Development, Dissemination, and Improvement Act of 1994. The Institute's mission is to provide leadership and support for research and development examining the critical governance, finance, policymaking, and management aspects of teaching and learning. The purpose of the work is to identify research with short-term and long-term consequences for policymakers and educators and to disseminate findings from such work in the most useful ways to help them design, implement, and sustain effective education reforms.

Toward that end, the Institute is committed to targeting its program of research toward helping address the emerging and enduring issues being faced by the Institute's clients--America's education policymakers, practitioners, and other education leaders. In order to constructively influence policy and management decisions, information and products based on research must target the right audience, in the most useful form, at the right time.

This document summarizes the direction that our clients have provided the Institute. It draws heavily from a meeting held with a range of policymakers, practitioners and other educations leaders, including state legislators and legislative staff, representatives of the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Governors' Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, state and local superintendents, representatives of the business community, school board members, education administrator associations, and teacher associations.¹

We wish to thank those many individuals who have given so generously of their time and their counsel to help shape the direction and nature of our Institute's work.

Deborah Inman
Director
National Institute on Educational Governance, Finance,
Policymaking, and Management

¹Participants in this meeting are listed in the appendix of this document.

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[Title Page]

[Executive Summary]