Knowledge and Action: The Use of Social Science Evaluations in Decisions on Equal Educational Opportunity, 1970-73.

This report analyzes why the Federal government has made little use of evaluation studies and data available on equal education and school integration. An overview is provided of Federal policy and action on equal education from 1970 to 1972. The utilization of evaluations in the areas of educational and social effects of desegregation, criteria/incentives for maximum feasible desegregation, and compensatory education and achievement are discussed. Also traced are political, bureaucratic, and intellectual factors which affected the extent to which evaluations shaped Federal policy. It is held that with more communication between legislative staff and researchers, valid social program evaluations can be chosen and cumulatively synthesized, in order to apply them to decision making and policy. (Author/KR)