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 FROM THE DIRECTOR
CAREI
and University 2000
By Geoffrey Maruyama
First, I extend my personal thanks to Harris Cooper, a prominent
expert on homework, for the feature article in this issue. I also
call your attention to the Guy Bond Reading Conference noted on
page 11.
As promised in the last newsletter, I will devote my column this
time to CAREI's strategic planning efforts, part of the University-wide
effort known as University 2000.
CAREI represents the type of structure that is envisioned by
this effort. First, it fulfills all three missions of the University
as described in the original University 2000 statement:
- Research and Discovery--Generate…knowledge…by conducting
high quality research…[to] benefit students, scholars, and communities
across the state, the nation, and the world.
- Teaching and Learning--Share that knowledge…
- Outreach and Public Service--Extend, apply, and exchange
knowledge between the University and society by applying scholarly
expertise to community problems, by helping organizations and
individuals respond to their changing environments, and by making
the knowledge and resources created and preserved at the University
accessible to the citizens of the state, the nation, and the
world.
Furthermore, the University 2000 document refers to cooperation,
mutual respect, responsiveness to needs, partnerships, and empowerment,
all intrinsic to CAREI's role.
Other positive aspects of CAREI are that it links graduate education
to professional practice, it helps to keep faculty in touch with
the schools, it visibly links the University to the community, and
it connects schools to other knowledge-based resources (e.g., the
National Diffusion Network and the Drug Free Schools and Communities
programs of The EXCHANGE).
Within the College of Education, CAREI serves a critical function.
It visibly exemplifies what sets a college of education within a
research university apart from other colleges of education, namely,
the blending of research, teaching, and outreach for educational
improvement. In CAREI, the focus is on college faculty and classroom
teachers conducting applied, collaborative research on education
and human development.
Vision
By the year 2000 CAREI will have developed a series of long-term,
ongoing areas of focus about which significant research activity
and evidence have accumulated.
The areas of focus will reflect ongoing partnerships between
school staff and University researchers of long duration.
The scope and scale of research conducted under the auspices
of CAREI will continue to expand. Multi-district studies will
be conducted, and more regular faculty members will be engaged
in CAREI activities.
CAREI seeks to zero in on areas of opportunity for expanding
its scope and/or redirecting its goals.
Steps to be Taken Immediately
- Continue support for ongoing activities.
- Review collaborative grants program. This program is
meant to provide seed money for collaborative projects that
are broad in scope and that have the potential to affect
educational practice. Single-focus grant cycles or larger
multi-district grants will be considered.
- Develop technology (e.g., Gopher) and improve other
means to assist in dissemination.
- Examine the need for CAREI to (1) build increased capacity
to provide evaluation services on a fee-for-services basis
and (2) do major contract research studies.
- Increase efforts to link groups of researchers and practitioners
with common interests.
- Build broader relationships with other groups interested
in educational issues.
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