The Nature and Causes of Regressive Movements in Reading

Ninety-six Wisconsin school district administrators and sixty-six AERA members responded to a tripart survey instrument on the question of access to public schools to do research. The three topics were: (1) a critical incident report form, (2) a Likert-type attitudinal scale, and (3) three separate rank-order questions. Administrators appear to make decisions on access requests on a personal basis. Other considerations in access granting appeared to be the value of the research to the district, the amount of upset the research would cause to district routines, tacit policies on district accessibility, the extent of local control possible in the research, and the financial implications for the district. Researchers agree with administrators on academic questions concerning research access but appear to be misperceiving salient signals concerning research access granting.