Using Research Evidence in Education

This book includes a set of rigorous and accessible studies on the topic of research evidence from a variety of levels and educational vantage points. It also provides the reader with thoughtful commentaries from leading thinkers in the field. The complex process of acquiring, interpreting, and using research evidence makes for a rich and under examined area in educational research, practice and policymaking. Policy makers, practitioners and scholars are in need of additional knowledge and practical steps in terms of the uptake of evidence into practice. In addition, sharpening understanding in terms of the ways in which research evidence is shaped or adapted at different educational levels (school, district, state, federal) as well the factors that support or constrain the acquisition and use of research evidence is of immediate use. The book begins with an introductory section that offers the reader a general lay of the land regarding research based evidence and its literature base, offering an accessible, but more scholarly background on the topic including gap areas and high leverage points for exploration. The remainder of the book is divided into three parts: Section I is focused on research evidence at the local level, offering the reader a more micro and meso level view of research evidence as it takes place in everyday practice in schools, district offices and intermediary organizations. Section II moves to the macro level of state and federal policies/policy makers. It examines the role of research evidence at the state and federal level in terms of how research evidence is used and not used, in the policy and policy maker realm. The last section offers next steps and future directions in terms of the research-policy-practice connections. The book concludes with an integrated chapter that brings together the meta-themes and promising directions from across the entire book.