ABSTRACT
At a time when questions are being raised with particular poignancy about the value of basic research in the social and behavioral sciences, 1 it seems useful to try to clarify some of the issues as they pertain to research in education. After a period of about ten years during which Federal support of educational research increased markedly—a period in which there was a relative lack of concern as to whether the research being supported was “basic” or “applied,” as a result of which a considerable amount of research of a fairly “basic” character was supported—recent Congressional actions and corresponding policy decisions in the
