Good research does not mean good policy, but policy or legal conclusions that rely on false assumptions are certain to be bad. When the rights of U.S. students of color are at stake, the Supreme Courts need the best research findings the country can offer. The U.S. Constitution contains sweeping and undefined terms. Reaching a conclusion about the…

Skidmore and Thompson (this issue of "Educational Researcher") imply that a graph was changed with the intent to promote more experimental research in education. In this response, the author presents evidence that challenges this implication and concludes that the changed graph does not accurately capture the "declining" trend of experimental…

The author argues that the role of a public intellectual involves a science of knowing as well as the knowledge gained by a researcher's work and life. Including both, the intellectual moves beyond educational organizations and finds ways to become more involved not only with larger issues of public policy but also with those with whom he or…

It was critical that the U.S. Supreme Court have the best empirical evidence available to help inform its decisions in "Fisher." The "amicus" brief filed by 444 researchers from 172 institutions in 42 states was the result of a collaborative effort among members of the social science, educational, and legal communities. In her role as counsel of…

The present article responds briefly to the comments, in this issue of "Educational Researcher," of Petrosino and of Robinson to the "Propagation of Misinformation About Frequencies of RFTs/RCTs in Education: A Cautionary Tale." The authors emphasize that the context of how the quality of education research is perceived both within and outside the…

This article responds to arguments by Skidmore and Thompson (this issue of "Educational Researcher") that a graph published more than 10 years ago was erroneously reproduced and "gratuitously damaged" perceptions of the quality of education research. After describing the purpose of the original graph, the author counters assertions that the graph…

In a symposium at the 2012 National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education annual conference, Claremont Graduate University Professor Daryl G. Smith, a pioneer in the study of diversity in postsecondary educational contexts, critiqued the disproportionate framing of diversity-related research around past, present, and future U.S.…

Much ink has been spilled debating the role of the intellectual. William Tierney's article "Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating Poverty" in the August/September 2013 issue of "Educational Researcher" adds to this literature. In his article, Tierney presents recommendations to the education…

The purpose of this article is to move readers toward a deeper understanding of and widened respect for autoethnography's capacity as an empirical endeavor. An argument is presented in favor of autoethnography as empirical by translating information from its epistemological and methodological history across the AERA standards for reporting…

Graesser, McNamara, and Kulikowich (2011) describe the value of the Coh-Metrix system for providing multilevel analyses of textual difficulty. This comment article discusses the broader usefulness of Coh-Metrix for text researchers in providing information about multiple variables in textual features. Coh-Metrix may encourage researchers to…

Seventeen years ago Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) published the landmark article "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy," giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I, like countless teachers and university-based researchers, have been inspired by what it means…

Over the past several decades, researchers have used economics to understand a number of issues in education policy. This article argues that some education researchers have defined economics too narrowly, neglecting several areas of economics research that cut across disciplinary boundaries. One subdiscipline of economics that might be of use in…

This article reviews the impacts of the civil rights policies framed in the 1960s and the anti-civil rights political and legal movements that reversed them. It documents rising segregation by race and poverty. The policy reversals and transformation of U.S. demography require a new civil rights strategy. Vast immigrations, the sinking White…

Computer analyses of text characteristics are often used by reading teachers, researchers, and policy makers when selecting texts for students. The authors of this article identify components of language, discourse, and cognition that underlie traditional automated metrics of text difficulty and their new Coh-Metrix system. Coh-Metrix analyzes…

Advocates of narrative research often contend that it is superior to nonnarrative research, both qualitative and quantitative, because they believe it is better able to represent multiple perspectives and foster multiple interpretations. The author of this comment article on Coulter and Smith (2009) draws on literary theory and an analysis of the…