This volume contains fifteen papers that were delivered at a two-day conference under the auspices of Russell Sage Foundation and the Rockefeller University. The first volume was published in 1967 and dealt with the topic of neurophysiology and emotion. The second volume contained the proceedings of the conference on genetics and behavior and was published in 1968. The aim of the series was to strengthen the dialogue between the biological and social sciences.

Contributors:  Joaquín Cravioto, Richard H. Barnes, Edward A. Suchman, William A. Mason, Leon J. Yarrow, Peter Marler, Andrew Gordon, I. Arthur Mirsky, René Dubos, Richard H. Walters, D.E. Berlyne, William Kessen, P. Herbert Leiderman, Jerome Kagan, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr.

The Mid-Century Committee on Outcomes in Elementary Education was assembled to describe for educations, test-makers, and interested citizens the measurable goals of instruction in American elementary schools. This 1953 report presents the specific objectives of elementary education as outlined by a distinguished group of consultants and evaluated by carefully selected critics.

Nolan C. Kearney was assistant superintendent for curriculum and research in the public schools of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The study reported in this 1960 book examined the process of foster home placement and the impact of this process on the foster child. It also aimed to show some of the limits and potentialities of research in an actual practicing agency. The study grew out of a Russell Sage Foundation residency held by the author during 1954–1955 at the Chicago Child Care Society.

Eugene A. Weinstein was professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University.

Published in 1962, Cottage Six documents the implementation of more effective use of the social sciences in the therapeutic program of an institution for children, particularly its Cottage 6, inhabited by adolescent boys. It analyzes the problems that confront any institution that wishes to develop an integrated clinical and therapeutic community program.

Howard W. Polsky was professor at the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University.

An examination of the public relations administration of the Boy Scouts of America, the second in a series of public relations case studies published by the Russell Sage Foundation. Topics include the use of symbols and slogans, relations with the community, publicity programs, and a general history and annual reports of the Boy Scouts.

Harold P. Levy, research associate, with an introduction by Mary Swain Routzahn, director, Department of Social Work Interpretation, Russell Sage Foundation.

The Survey Study of Behavioral Outcomes of General Education in High School was organized to describe for educators, curriculum planners, testmakers, and interested citizens the objectives of general education in American secondary schools. It attempts to draw out what high school graduates should be able to do – how they may be expected to think and feel and act – as a result of the general education element of their high school program.

From the preface: “The present work and a simultaneously published companion volume, Theory and Practice of Social Planning, share an overall goal. They would conceptualize and illustrate both specialized planning for social programs or fields and the social aspects of more general planning endeavors. Of particular concern here is the demonstration through use of a number of critical planning concepts often discussed only in the abstract. Author and reader, of course, are concerned with specific policies and with programs in specific fields. The studies presented – they are short monographs rather than true chapters – introduce issues and problems in a variety of high-priority areas. The specific rationale for selection and the manner in which each study is employed are discussed in the first chapter.” Topics include: the anti-poverty war, child delinquency, income security, city renewal, community psychiatry, and the delivery of social services at the local level.

ALFRED J. KAHN was professor of Social Policy and Planning at the Columbia University School of Social Work.

A collaboration with the Russell Sage Foundation and the American Sociological Society, this report assesses sociologists’ contributions to the field of corrections and the study of crime and examines how sociological training and theory can be carried over into practical professional application in the field. Topics include the organizational aspects of the prison system, social-psychological aspects of prison life, probation and parole, and correctional career opportunities for sociologists.

Lloyd E. Ohlin was director of the Center for Education and Research in Corrections, University of Chicago.

In 1949 the Russell Sage Foundation began a program for the improvement of the synthesis of research in the social sciences in professional practice. This book explores some of the major areas of interest shared by medicine and social science. Particular reference is made to those concepts and formulations that bear directly upon the problems of health and that may instigate collaborative research between medical and social scientists, linking disciplines such as sociology, social psychology, and social anthropology with medical research and practice to better clarify the function of the social and cultural dynamics at work in illness and human adaptation.

Leo W. Simmons was professor of sociology at Yale University. Harold G. Wolff was professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College.

Readings in Evaluation Research serves both researchers and those teaching evaluation research, applied social research, and social planning by presenting a comprehensive overview on evaluative research. The general papers address such issues as the nature of the evaluation task, the role of evaluative research in programs of directed change, the organizational context in which evaluative research is conducted, and the appropriate methodological strategies. The case materials include treatment of problems in the establishment of the evaluative research role and reports of findings of completed research studies.

Contributors: A. Stephen Stephan, Edward A. Suchman, Michael Scriven, Michael P. Brooks, Albert Cherns, Herbert C. Schulberg, Frank Baker, Martin Trow, Peter H. Rossi, Chris Argyris, Anthony Downs, Hyman Rodman, Ralph Kolodny, Carol H. Weiss, Floyd Mann, Rensis Likert, B.G. Greenberg, John Mann, Charles R. Wright, Paul Lerman, Donald T. Campbell, Howard E. Freeman, Clarence C. Sherwood, Peter H. Rossi, James S. Coleman, Robert S. Weiss, Martin Rein, Francis G. Caro, F. Stuart Chapin, Walter B. Miller, Walter Grove, John E. Lubach, James K. Skipper Jr., Robert C. Leonard, Ronald Freedman, Laura Pan Lu, H.C. Chen, L.P. Chow, Victor Cicarelli, and John W. Evans.

Francis G. Caro was associate professor of social research in the Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis University.