Researchers are increasingly being asked to demonstrate the impact of their research on policy. Unfortunately, evidence on what works is scarce because it is rarely reported and evaluated. This paper describes a programme of facilitated engagement between knowledge producers and users on topics of joint research and policy interest, and validates…

Based on a 2010-11 study involving senior researchers from seven disciplines, this article explores critically some of the diverse interpretations of impact in different disciplines, sub-fields and modes of research, and researchers' views about how these interpretations articulate with top-down impact agendas and with university structures…

Surveys and benchmarks continue to grow in importance for community colleges in response to several factors. One is the press for accountability, that is, for colleges to report the outcomes of their programs and services to demonstrate their quality and prudent use of resources, primarily to external constituents and governing boards at the state…

Current economic conditions and the increasing competition for government funding are leading to an increased focus on the impact of research. Measuring the impact of research is difficult because not all impacts are direct and some can be negative or result from the identification of problems that require a non-research response. The time between…

In February 2009, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) commissioned RAND Europe to review approaches to evaluating the impact of research as part of their wider work programme to develop new arrangements for the assessment and funding of research--referred to as the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The objectives were 1) to…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

This study examines what specific data college faculty and administrators use in their jobs and the extent to which they use data analysis to design and improve the impact of programs and services. The study is based on a survey on the use of student data by faculty and administrators at 41 community colleges participating in Achieving the Dream:…

Over the past few years Research Data Services (RDS), part of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), has led numerous large-scale, longitudinal projects. Feedback to schools has been provided for all of these projects, and has been in the form of sets of tables and charts and electronic files illustrating pupil performance and…

This report is designed to help policymakers, parents, reporters, and foundation officials better understand what has been learned about voucher programs and why some key questions remain unsettled. It is based on an analysis of voucher programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Florida State. Four basic questions are addressed: (1) What do we know…

The No Child Left Behind Act has brought research, particularly scientific based research, beyond discussions in graduate schools and back into the consciousness of educators in the field. For many educators, it has been a long time since those discussions, and key concepts about educational research may have become hazy. In this fourth article of…

This chapter examines lessons learned by states that are using student unit record (SUR) data to improve outcomes for community college students and recommends steps states can take to strengthen their use of SUR databases to benefit students and communities. (Contains 1 exhibit.)

This paper reviews the literature concerning school-wide discipline systems. It examines strategies suggested by experts, the effectiveness of these systems, and research indicating promising school-wide discipline practices. Only systems containing proactive or positive school-wide procedures were considered in the review of 34 articles. The…

Research on teaching can be concerned with teaching in general or it can be conducted with a single kind of subject matter. Which kind of research is more advantageous? This issue arises in the planning of programs of research on teaching. The generic approach looks for uniformities, concepts, and principles that apply across all or many subject…

Takes issue with the preceding article on the National Preventive Dentistry Demonstration Program. Argues that while the program's report has made a useful contribution to public health planning, its results are not valid as a reference for cost or effectiveness data for school-based dental health programs. (KH)

Objective:: To help close the gap between health promotion research and practice by using systems thinking. Methods: We review 3 national US tobacco control initiatives and a project (ISIS) that has introduced systems thinking to tobacco control, speculating on ways in which systems thinking may add value to health promotion dissemination and…