The Targeted Research and Development Program on Reading

• Published in: American educational research journal 1970-05, Vol.7 (3), p.425-448
• Main Authors: Penney, Monte, Hjelm, Howard F., Gephart, William
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Educational research; Instructional materials; Instructional systems; Linear arrays; Modeling; Reading; Reading instruction; Reading research; Recommendations; Research and development; Special Section
• ISSN: 0002-8312; 1935-1011
• DOI: 10.3102/00028312007003425

Part I of the following paper discusses the history of the U. S. Office of Education's support of research on reading and related phenomena by presenting a profile of dollar expenditures and areas of concentration for each of the past eleven years. An informal staff study conducted in 1967 indicated that reading instruction was at a plateau: further insight into the reading allied processes was needed before instruction could be radically improved. Pursuit of the needed basic knowledge, the study suggested, could be best facilitated in a programatic format which provided a "critical mass" of funds for theory-building research. The planning of such a program clearly required the best advice of active investigators, but in addition, a formal, communicable planning technique for channeling and consolidating that advice had to be found. The procedure selected is called the Convergence Technique, originally formulated for use in the biomedical research programs of the National Cancer Institute. USOE staff and expert advisors, after talking with the technique's originators, decided that an attempt should be made to determine its utility for pursuit of educational problems by employing it in planning the new program of research on reading. Dr. William J. Gephart's interest in research processes attracted him to the task of managing the first application of the Convergence Technique to an educational problem. Part II of the paper describes activities conducted by Dr. Gephart under the terms of a USOE contract with Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., and presents an overview of the five-phase strategy evolved by the planning team for guidance of the Targeted R & D Program on Reading. The recommendations of the planning team to the U. S. Office of Education include a strong endorsement of the Convergence Technique's potential usefulness in pursuit of other program objectives. Part II ends with an earnest solicitation of critical reaction to the work thus far completed.