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Here, we present two case studies of extremely long-term retention. In the first, Richard C. Atkinson (RCA) had learned word sequences during experiments for his dissertation. Sixty-seven years later, RCA relearned the same words either in the original order or in a scrambled order. RCA reported no conscious awareness that the words were those used in the dissertation, but his relearning was considerably better for the words in the original order. In the second case study, Denis Cousineau had searched displays of objects for the presence of a target. The targets and foils had been novel at the beginning of training, and his search rate improved markedly over about 70 sessions. After 22 years, retraining showed retention of much of this gain in rate of search, and the rate was markedly faster than search for new objects with the same structure as the trained set. We consider interpretations of these case studies for our understanding of long-term retention.

The College Boards started as achievement tests designed to measure students' mastery of college preparatory subjects. Admissions testing has significantly changed since then with the introduction of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Lindquist's creation of the ACT, renewed interest in subject-specific assessments, and current efforts to adapt K-12 standards-based tests for use in college admissions. We have come full circle to a renewed appreciation for the value of achievement tests. Curriculum-based achievement tests are more valid indicators of college readiness than other tests and have important incentive or signaling effects for K-12 schools as well: They help reinforce a rigorous academic curriculum and create better alignment of teaching, learning, and assessment along the pathway from high school to college.

The impact of public sector research is evident in many technology sectors, particularly in the agriculture field. The authors discuss the impact of public sector collaboration on agricultural intellectual property management.

The highest-order function of the mind is as a theorist. The memory system accumulates information about the outside world. The mind’s theorist must sort through the information to formulate a theory about that world. The basic component of the system for theory building is a process called trolling. When the conscious mind is not being bombarded by external stimuli, or during certain stages of sleep, the mind’s theorist trolls through memory searching for traces that contain similar information. If several traces are identified, analysis may yield information that was not evident when each was examined individually; reification of this sort can add new information to memory. The trolling process, and its ability to form new memory traces in the absence of external stimulation, is key to understanding many psychological phenomena.

Richard C. Atkinson’s eight-year tenure as president of the University of California (1995–2003) reflected the major issues facing California itself: the state’s emergence as the world’s leading knowledge-based economy and the rapidly expanding size and diversity of its population. As this selection of President Atkinson’s speeches and papers reveals, his administration was marked by innovative approaches that deliberately shaped U.C.’s role in this changing California. These writings tell the story of the national controversy over the SAT and Atkinson’s successful challenge to the dominance of the seventy-five-year-old college entrance examination. They also highlight other issues with national significance: U.C.’s experiments with race-neutral admissions programs; the challenges facing academic libraries and the University’s pioneering activities with the California Digital Library; and the University’s involvement in new paradigms of industry-university research. Together, these speeches and papers open a window on an eventful period in the history of the nation’s leading public research university and the history of American higher education.

Randomized trials, although a promising approach, reflect impacts of only a limited subset of highly sought-after schools. Charter schools have been promoted as a solution to what many view as the public school malaise in the United States. Charter schools, although publicly funded, can operate fairly independently of large district bureaucracies and teacher unions, for instance, by setting their own curriculum and teaching methods and by avoiding the system that grants the most senior teachers first choice of job openings, regardless of their classroom effectiveness. Proponents hope that the semi-independent governance structure of charters will encourage these schools to generate fresh ideas. President Obama has followed Presidents Bush and Clinton in identifying charter schools as a key element of school reform.

The Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in the U.S. Department of Education has a mandate for expanding knowledge of teaching and learning and for improving education in this country.This book focuses on how OERI can better fulfill that mission in light of what is known about why prior education reforms have often failed, what is needed to enhance the effectiveness of such efforts, and what education research and development can contribute to better schools.The history, mission, governance, organization, functions, operations, and budgets of OERI are analyzed. Recommendations are made for restructuring OERI, expanding funding, involving scholars from many fields, and engaging teachers and school principals in improvement efforts.