[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 115 (Tuesday, August 16, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

                                 ______


                       HON. GEORGE E. BROWN, JR.

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 16, 1994

  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, through my years in Congress, I 
have become convinced that many of our Nation's serious problems are 
social and behavioral in nature. The problems that most concern the 
public, and take most of our tax dollars, often have no technical 
solutions but rather human solutions which must be developed through 
working with the ability and attitudes of the people involved. 
Consequently, greater knowledge of behavioral and social sciences is a 
true necessity.
  More work in these disciplines can give us important insights into 
the solutions for many of the social problems that have eroded American 
society. Progress in these sciences could make a great difference to 
those in Washington responsible for the public policies and programs 
that seek to create more opportunity and improve the human condition in 
America.
  We cannot escape the fact that social and behavioral research is 
funded almost exclusively by the Federal Government. At the same time, 
this research is often costly because gathering data from large numbers 
of people is expensive. It goes without saying that we have to do 
everything possible to get the greatest return possible from funds 
invested in these areas.
  Within the social and behavioral sciences, the developing field of 
research synthesis has particular potential. Through its focus on 
reworking original data already gathered and developed by multiple 
previous research efforts, research synthesis can often deliver more 
powerful and useful conclusions. By re-evaluating previously developed 
data in different ways--even from studies that appear to differ in 
their result--research synthesis can often bring clarity, strengthen 
findings, and provide new insights.
  Policies affecting problems like job training, education, and 
criminal rehabilitation can benefit greatly from fresh perspectives on 
existing data. Research synthesis has also proven especially useful in 
health care where data gathered in the past can yield new insights with 
tremendous leverage on cost. For example, the effectiveness of aspirin 
in preventing certain heart conditions and the finding that modest 
behavioral steps in preparing a patient for surgery can significantly 
reduce the length of hospital stay where both discerned from already 
existing data that had been gathered and kept for different reasons.
  A National Conference on Research Synthesis was held in Washington 
last June sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation and organized by the 
American Psychological Society. This conference brought together more 
than 130 senior Federal officials concerned with improving public 
policy to learn about recent developments in research synthesis. I was 
especially pleased that the Office of Technology Assessment and the 
General Accounting Office participated. They should both be encouraged 
to explore the potential of this area of social science in view of the 
importance of their role in advising the Congress.
  The conference featured the use of synthesis techniques to evaluate 
research in education, juvenile delinquency, health, and job training 
with presentations by Frederick Mostellar of Harvard University; Eric 
Wanner, president of the Russell Sage Foundation; Harris Cooper of the 
University of Missouri; David S. Cordray and Mark Lipsey of Vanderbilt 
University; Elizabeth Devine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; 
Larry Hedges of the University of Chicago; Richard Light of Harvard 
University; and Thomas Louis of the University of Minnesota. Eleanor 
Chelimsky, Assistant Comptroller General of the General Accounting 
Office, Iain Chalmers, director of the U.K. Cochrane Centre, and M.R.C. 
Greenwood, Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology 
Policy, gave keynote presentations.
  The conference was an outgrowth of a decade-long effort to further 
the field of research synthesis by the Russell Sage Foundation, which 
since the late 1940's has been dedicated to strengthening social 
science research as a means of improving social policies. The American 
Psychological Society, the American Sociological Association, the 
American Statistical Association, the American Evaluation Association, 
and the Society for Research in Child Development cosponsored the 
event.
  The field of research synthesis offers new ways to increase our 
ability to solve some of the hardest, most challenging issues 
confronting the Nation today. I commend the Russell Sage Foundation and 
the cosponsoring organizations for their leadership in confronting the 
issues.

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