A National Educational Dissemination System (NEDS) is needed. Such a NEDS would meld together the multitude of discrete educational dissemination initiatives established under various federal legislation-- for example, the National Center for Dissemination and Training in Vocational Education, the vocational education curriculum coordination centers (NNCCVTE), the National Diffusion Network, and the regional education R&D labs.
As Saul Alinski, the Chicago-based "father" of political community organizing, stated and as American politics has demonstrated over and over, mere numbers of constituents are a necessary but insufficient component of organizing for change; rather, these numbers must be organized numbers. The expertise and numbers presently exist to develop a NEDS. The time has come for all of us who view educational dissemination as a major tool for educational reform to speak with as unified a voice as possible.
To encourage the dialog that will--hopefully--lead to the individual commitment required for disparate groups to get out of their respective chairs and approach others with the wish to change, that is to collaborate--organize!--NCRVE is establishing an Internet discussion group called DISSMN8. This article is a call to join the discussion.
Title IV of Perkins II states that
the Secretary [of Education] shall establish a system for disseminating information resulting from research and development activities carried out under this Act. In establishing such system, the Secretary shall use existing dissemination systems, including the National Diffusion Network, the National Center or Centers for Research in Vocational Education, and the National Network for Curriculum Coordination in Vocational and Technical Education, in order to assure broad access at the State and local levels to the information being disseminated [Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Title IV, Part A, §402(c)(1)]....Goals 2000 authorizes the the U.S. Department of Education toThe Secretary [of Education], in consultation with the National Center or Centers for Research in Vocational Education..., the National Diffusion Network, and the Blue Ribbon Schools Program, is authorized to carry out programs to recognize...schools or programs which have established standards of excellence in vocational education and which have demonstrated a high level of quality [Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Title IV, Part B, §415(b)(1)]....
[Such programs shall] disseminate information relating to successful dropout prevention strategies...through the National Dropout Prevention Network and the [ERIC Clearinghouse on] Adult, Career and Vocational Education [Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Title IV, Part B, §418(b)(3)]....
(A) create a national system of dissemination, development, and educational improvement in order to create, adapt, identify, validate, and disseminate to educators, parents, and policymakers those educational programs that have potential or have been shown to improve educational opportunities for all students; and(Goals 2000: Educate America Act, Title IX, Part D, National Education Dissemination System, Sec. 941 (2) Purpose, p. 125)(B) empower and increase the capacity of teachers to participate in the research and development process.
For the last approximately thirty years federally funded educational dissemination initiatives have developed an extensive-if, at this moment, only potential-cadre of educational dissemination experts, many linked within programmatic networks, but with few linked across programs. Think, for example, of the (now unfortunately defunct) Research Coordinating Units, the six regional centers of the National Network for Curriculum Coordination in Vocational and Technical Education and the NNCCVTE's State Liaison Representatives, the National Diffusion Network--its local Developer/Demonstrators as well as its State Facilitators--and the regional educational research and development laboratories. The time has come for us, the educationally committed, who believe that research and practice produce knowledge of use to others, the time has come to organize across dissemination programs to form a NEDS.