The Instructional Dimensions Study

In 1974, Congress directed the National Institute of Education to perform a general examination of compensatory education. Included in that legislation was the spe­ cific directive to conduct a detailed study of the effectiveness of materials and pro­ cedures for meeting the educational needs of individual children. As a result of that Congressional mandate, NIE requested "proposals for the design of a study to as­ sess the effectiveness of individualize d instruction as it is currently used by com­ pensatory programs in schools" (NIE, 1975, p. 4). In that request for proposals, the NIE