Education is absorbing an increasing share of the nation's resources. The body of research on the subject is vast. Yet its impact on policy has been diffuse and difficult to assess. Studies directly focused on policy issues are rare. The primary aim of this paper is to suggest some areas where research is needed in view of emerging policy considerations. To put such a discussion in its context we begin by briefly examining the extent to which research has had an impact on education policy. We use ‘policy’ here to mean political and administrative decision-making. We conclude with some remarks on the funding and initiation of educational research.

This article deals with two supplementary cash grants paid to low-income groups in the Israeli population in the year 1962. Both grants were intended to compensate selected population groups for the discontinuation of universal services previously enjoyed by the entire population. The first grant was intended to compensate low-income employees for the non-payment of a universal cost-of-living allowance after devaluation at the beginning of 1962. The second grant was intended to compensate low-income groups for the abolition of the government bread subsidy in the summer of 1962 and the consequent rise in the price of this staple food.

The discussion on goals and goal-setting procedures in town planning which has recently been going on in the social and planning sciences1 is concerned – with a few exceptions – with the general methodological aspects of the problem. Undoubtedly this approach, stressing a typology of planning and the importance of planning environments and discussing the advantages of different goal-setting methods, has stimulated planning methodology and helped to modify strictly normative models2 of planning, which did not take into account that planning is also a social process.3

Age, lack of skill, employment in certain industries, all contribute to low pay – but with what weight? The purpose of this study is to present evidence that age and skill have been underestimated and the industrial effect misconstrued as factors in low pay. We then attempt to spell out the handicaps of the low paid in labour markets, of which high rates of unemployment are the main sign.