Why do some innovations in policy or practice take off, while others fizzle out? Social scientists and policy experts have grappled with this question for decades, studying the diffusion of new ideas and examining how and why states, organizations, and institutions adopt innovations to their policies or practices. In recent years, states have…

The COVID-19 outbreak emphasizes the need for alternative methods for data gathering and collaboration among researchers in a virtual research environment. One experimental design that is well suited in a social distancing research context is the single-case experimental design (SCD). SCDs can handle disruptions as: (a) they do not require large…

Decades of research underscore how important teachers are in students' lives. They are, in fact, one of the most important factors contributing to student success in the classroom. Teachers, particularly highly qualified and effective teachers, are a key ingredient in achieving student success. However, as with many aspects of education, years of…

Multilingual learners (MLL) are a large and growing group of disadvantaged students in the United States public education system who come from refugee and immigrant backgrounds and require linguistic instruction, in addition to content instruction. MLLs are entitled to language instruction, and school districts receive additional funding for these…

The process of implementing intensive reading interventions using data-based decision-making (DBDM) becomes increasingly challenging as students move into the secondary grades and reading tasks correspondingly become more complex. This article provides teachers with guidelines to support effective implementation of DBDM for students with or at…

The rapidly growing number of learning materials and repositories makes the issue of how to find the most relevant and best quality resources to be integrated in teaching and learning offers. Thus, effective quality assessment tools are more and more needed. In the present paper, a case-study focusing on quality assurance in a Virtual Mobility…

Educational research is one of the many fields of knowledge that frequently use case studies as a research method, particularly when applying an interpretive approach. Based on literature reviews and a systematic analysis of current scientific literature, this paper examines the prevalence and characteristics of the case study as a methodology for…

Within Extension, certain personnel, facilitators, and volunteers expected to conduct research in the form of program evaluation may have little or no training in effective research design and practices. This circumstance can lead to difficulties in the implementation of evaluation procedures, particularly with regard to program evaluation…

Evaluations that include stakeholders aim to understand their perspectives and to ensure that their views are represented. This article offers a new approach to gaining stakeholder perspectives through crowdsourcing. We recruited a sample of individuals with chronic low back pain through a crowdsourcing site. This sample coded textual data…

The federal government has collected data from colleges and universities for more than a century. However, how and what data are collected has evolved over time, as has the purposes for collecting those data. The most systematic collection of data happens through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which is required to be…

This article argues that localizing access -- a general ethical principle -- is a workable strategy that can be used in approaching participants in qualitative research across disciplines and in coping with respective institutional practices in order to collect meaningful data. This article is based on the autobiographical, lived experiences of…

Participatory methods for engaging children and young people in research are becoming more popular and innovative in social research. One example of this is the inclusion of participant photography. Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted in Northern Ireland, this article explores the application of participant photography to research drug use…

This story begins with the assumption that I, the White female researcher, would elicit 'better' data from White participants. I told my Black female professor, 'I'm gonna use this White face!' This became a metaphor to describe my entry into the site and the various interactions that took place there. I conclude that the way that my racial…

California does not have a statewide data system that tracks student progress through K-12 and higher education and into the workforce. As a result, educators and policymakers cannot answer critical questions about student progress, which limits their ability to make evidence-based changes to support better and more equitable opportunities for…

Working with practicing teachers, this article demonstrates, through the facilitation of a statistical activity, how to introduce and investigate the unique qualities of the statistical process including: formulate a question, collect data, analyze data, and interpret data.