When Research Matters: How Scholarship Influences Education Policy

"When Research Matters" considers the complex and crucially important relationship between education research and policy. In examining how and under what conditions research affects education policy, the book focuses on a number of critical issues: the history of the federal role in education policy; the evolving nature of educational policy research; the role of research in debates about reading, NCLB, and "out-of-field" teaching; how research affects policy by shaping public opinion, judicial rulings, and the decisions of district and school leaders; and the incentives that help explain the behavior of researchers and policymakers. Chapters include: (1) Structure and Science in Federal Education Research (Andrew Rudalevige); (2) The Evolving Relationship between Researchers and Public Policy (Jeffrey R. Henig); (3) Double Standard? "Scientifically Based Research" and the No Child Left Behind Act (Paul Manna and Michael J. Petrilli); (4) Research and the Reading Wars (James S. Kim); (5) Researcher Meets the Policy Realm: A Personal Account (Richard M. Ingersoll); (6) Education Policy, Academic Research, and Public Opinion (William G. Howell); (7) Calculated Justice: Education Research and the Courts (Joshua Dunn and Martin West); (8) Flying (Partially) Blind: School Leaders' Use of Research in Decision-making (Lance D. Fusarelli); (9) What Gets Studied and Why: Examining the Incentives That Drive Education Research (Dan D. Goldhaber and Dominic J. Brewer); (10) Considering the Politics in the Research Policymaking Nexus (Kenneth K. Wong); and (11) Conclusion: Education Research and Public Policy (Frederick M. Hess). Notes and index are included. [Foreword by Lorraine M. McDonnell.]