One requirement put forth by national and state-level policy (e.g., Every Student Succeeds Act) is that practitioners use educational research to inform their decisions and instruction. Mathematics district leaders have been identified as pivotal individuals for enacting change within school districts. Using a design-based research approach, an intervention meant to build the capacity of mathematics district leaders to engage with research was designed and implemented with four mathematics district leaders from four different school districts from across one southeastern state in the United States. Findings indicated that mathematics district leaders' initial conceptualizations of research were varied as they tended to describe research in terms of their past experiences and beliefs. There were a number of different barriers that prevented them from accessing and using research. As the mathematics district leaders participated in the intervention, they became more discerning in the way they defined educational research, determined what makes it credible, and made their criteria explicit as they chose research or research-based articles to be credible. An outcome of the intervention was a co-designed tool to help facilitate the process of making sense of research. I share this tool and illustrate its potential for providing an opportunity for district-level leaders to examine research critically. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]