Education leaders know that they should use research when choosing interventions for their schools, but they don't always know how to read the research that is available. David Steiner explains some of the reasons that reading research is a low priority for educators on the front lines and offers some guidance for determining whether research…

The relationship between research and practice in K-12 is complicated and fraught. Research publications are unlikely to become more "user-friendly," and teachers are unlikely to change their practice quickly or more willingly -- nor should they. Recognize that reality, Isobel Stevenson and Richard Lemons explain that schools need to…

State education agencies play critically important roles in promoting research use in education. They influence policy design and implementation, collect data about schools and districts, and can use their statewide reach to advance research use within the state agency and in districts. As Carrie Conaway explains, the states that have done the…

The Every Student Succeeds Act grants states new flexibility to create more balanced assessment systems with a greater role for formative assessment. Drawing on lessons learned over three decades of research and reform, we argue that state and local leaders should take the lead in designing new assessments guided by two core principles: First,…

A focus group of 49 teachers revealed that teachers do use research, but they seek it out under very specific conditions. They also use different criteria than researchers use to judge the quality of research. For teachers, important factors include an ethos of localized learning, a shortage of time, and the primacy of local context. Researchers…

This article establishes a working definition of dissemination, identifies existing dissemination and practitioner networks, and proposes ways in which these networks can be brought together. (Author)

This article describes what a structured abstract is and how a structured abstract can help researchers sort out information. Today over 1,000 education journals publish more than 20,000 articles in the English language each year. No systematic tool is available at present to get the research findings from these tens of thousands of articles to…

All students of education need to learn what educational research is and how it can be read and understood. Successful review of research reports involves identifying and analyzing the research problem; the theoretical concepts concerned; the research assumptions; the methodology and procedures utilized; and the findings, conclusions, and…

Pedagogy consists of three components: the generic behaviors common to teaching in all disciplines, content-specific teaching behaviors, and theoretical concepts useful for explaining the application of these behaviors. Pedagogical research provides critical information about the behaviors that are used, those that work, and the reasons they work.…

Responds to Elliot Eisner's claim (Phi Delta Kappan, v. 65, p. 447-52) that educational research often affects educational practice subtly rather than overtly. Also argues, like Eisner, that educational research often is too indebted to social science language and too removed from practical applications. (JW)

Presents a critical rejoinder to Stedman's article that dismisses the validity of school effectiveness guidelines. Stedman has misused school effectiveness research findings, for the data actually support these characteristics. Stedman's generalized alternatives lack adequate supportive evidence. (CJH)

Test-based accountability systems aim to direct the behavior of educators toward the improvement of student achievement. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act codified accountability as the national educational blueprint, requiring schools to increase test scores incrementally so that all students are proficient in reading and math by 2014. Yet,…

Asserts that the widely cited set of characteristics of effective schools cannot be substantiated. The lack of research supporting the formula raises questions about school effectiveness programs. Recommends a synthesis of approaches that meet a school's needs and include a broader political agenda. (CJH)

The Commonwealth Teacher Training Study conducted shortly after World War I and the activities of the Commission on Teacher Education from 1938 to 1944 addressed the problems of recruiting and motivating higher quality education majors. The findings of these studies could prove highly relevant to today's concerns in teacher education. (PGD)

Reforms of educational practice arise from attractiveness of new ideas rather than from research findings because researchers import frameworks from other disciplines rather than using actual classroom phenomena as a basis for conceptual apparatuses and methods. (JW)