The Evidence to Action project (2019-2021), led by MDRC and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and supported by Arnold Ventures, initiated a body of work designed to disentangle the barriers that exist between research and state-level higher education policy and partnered with state higher education agencies to…

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) undertook this consensus report on the evaluation and improvement of teacher preparation programs (TPPs). Specifically, this consensus report aims to (1) identify and disseminate best practices for evaluating and improving TPPs to promote teacher effectiveness and student achievement; (2) provide…

When students, parents, educators, and partners have the right information to make decisions, students excel. By forming research partnerships, state education agencies (SEAs), policymakers, practitioners, and education researchers at universities and other research institutes can work together to use research to provide the best education…

Currently, when there is a lot of political talk about the need for "evidence-based policy", and when public policy seeks to calibrate research quality and impact, there is a pressing need to reconsider the relationships between education/al research and education policy. This article seeks to do this, beginning with considerations of the…

This report describes how big data and an evidence framework can align across five contexts of educational improvement. It explains that before working with big data, there is an important prerequisite: the proposed innovation should align with deeper learning objectives and should incorporate sound learning sciences principles. New curriculum…

Researchers, policy makers, and practitioners share a sincere interest in improving the human condition. Academics may be tempted to fault irrationality, ideology, or ignorance for the failure of research to inform policy and practice more powerfully, but policy makers and practitioners want academics to tell them "what works" in order to find a…

Policymakers across the nation are leading efforts to ensure that every classroom has an effective teacher. Faced with the need to dramatically improve student outcomes, states have embraced a policy agenda that promotes and supports teacher quality in many ways, including developing evaluation and compensation policies, targeting professional…

One of a series of reports resulting from a Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education project to improve planning and evaluation in community colleges, this report explains how colleges can use census data to assess the characteristics and educational requirements of individuals in their service areas. The report begins with a…

The report reviews results of a project to examine pilot approaches to documenting the contributions of research in improving educational practice. The project abstracted 110 currently funded research projects in progress (to facilitate dissemination to the field), processed final reports of field-initiated and student-initiated research funded by…

Panel I features two case histories of state government, university, and private corporation cooperation to bring technology to the workplace (Microelectronics Center of North Carolina and Ben Franklin Partnership Program) and presentations about Burlington Industries and General Electric Company investments in technology to save jobs and boost…

Describes personal experiences with university research and development. Criticizes university research as ineffective and inwardly focused, resulting in a concept of scientific research that negates the notion of economic development. Complains that the focus of study no longer contributes to an increase in consumable wealth. Urges that…

A consortium of 15 Nebraska colleges of education was established to provide collaborative means for examining significant research for teacher education, to share information about programs and activities, and to provide a support network as the institutions work on program improvement. A description is given of the formation of the Consortium…

This document provides an overview of the research program of the Swedish National Board of Education (NBE) since 1962. The following subjects are discussed: (1) budget; (2) duration of the various projects; (3) fields of research; (4) transmission of knowledge; (5) transition from management by command to management by objectives; (6) research in…

This School Research Newsletter presents the research program of the National Swedish Board of Education (NBE), as adopted by the NBE Board of Directors in June 1982. The successive decisions on decentralization taken in the educational sector since 1976 have led also to a decision to alter the thrust of the research and development work within at…

This chapter examines, from four perspectives, the ways in which educational research, development, and evaluation activities in the United States are organized, controlled, and supported, and considers whether research can be properly used to shape educational policy and practice. First, the size and historical development of the research and…