Much of the evidence translation literature focuses narrowly on the use of evidence in the initial policy formulation stages, and downplays the crucial role of institutions and the inherently political nature of policy making. More recent approaches acknowledge the importance of institutional and political factors, but make no attempt to…

This article focuses on the elaboration of institutional research practice, which is an important element of any research university. The study addresses three questions. First, how did institutional research arise, and what is its raison d'etre in a research university? Second, how can institutional research contribute to the improvement of the…

The current educational policy climate in the USA places immense pressure on school district central offices to use evidence to inform their decisions in order to improve student learning. In light of both the expectations of evidence-based decision making and the significance of central offices in supporting teaching and learning, there is…

This guide, first in a series of four volumes, is designed to give information to parents and other decision makers on costs and benefits of different kinds of choices of schools that children might attend. Four sections present digests of information based on research and evaluation studies. Section 1 introduces the format and purpose of the…

Discusses five characteristics of policy making within governmental sectors and the consequences of each for the social sciences: (1) degree of centralization, (2) characteristics of major policy actors; (3) characteristics of major institutions, (4) nature of decisions made by the sector, and (5) availability of alternate source of information.…

This report presents findings from a national examination of the organizations that sponsor, oversee and hold accountable U.S. charter schools. Its primary aim is to describe and characterize these crucial but little known organizations: What do they look like? How big are they? How do they go about their work? The results of this inquiry is a new…