There is increasing interest in research-based education in the Western World as it is assumed to strengthen school improvement capacity. Previous research shows that school principals play a pivotal role in realising such vision. The aim of this article is to explore the influence of principals on research-based education in their local municipal…

The complexity of contemporary higher education policy making and the multitude of evidences and actors in policy networks mean that relationships between higher education researchers, policy makers and research evidence are not straightforward. In this article, we use a theoretical lens of time, Adams' Timescapes, to explore this relationship and…

This research focuses on how members of the UK Parliament engaged with evidence in relation to the policy decision leading to the Selective Schools Expansion Fund, a policy designed to enable the existing 163 English grammar schools to apply for additional funds to expand their intake. Although a small case study, the narrow focus provides a…

The Evidence to Action project (2019-2021), led by MDRC and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and supported by Arnold Ventures, initiated a body of work designed to disentangle the barriers that exist between research and state-level higher education policy and partnered with state higher education agencies to…

For decades there have been calls by concerned stakeholders to improve the quality of education research, and some progress has been made towards creating a more secure evidence base in some areas. More programmes and approaches that have a reasonable evidence base are now also being used in schools (but not in policy, and not necessarily because…

Background: In today's era of evidence-based policymaking, policymakers face pressure to use research evidence to inform their decisions. This is particularly salient in the United States, where federal law mandates that education leaders implement policies, programs, and strategies that have been demonstrated to improve student outcomes. Despite…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were released in 2010 with an appendix that claimed to outline a research-based case for the standards. In this article, we examine the CCSS Appendix A as a case of research use in policy by analyzing the type of sources the document cites, the accuracy of its claim-citation relationships, and the frames its…

There have been few areas in England over the last 50 years where government has drawn more heavily on research to inform policy and practice than in the area of teaching reading. The focus of this article is an analysis of the research and evidence on early reading, in particular the role of phonics, on which government policy in England and the…

Despite claims that we now live in a post-truth society, it remains commonplace for policy makers to consult research evidence to increase the robustness of decision making. Few scholars of evidence-policy interfaces, however, have used legislatures as sites of study, despite the fact that they play a critical role in modern democracies. There is…

There is an ongoing debate about how best to infuse "evidence" into school evaluation and reform efforts, and what role education researchers can play in this effort. A lot of support has been garnered for evidence-based reform or policies that place a premium on practices that have been proven effective using rigorous research methods;…

The need for better linkages between evidence and policymaking has been well established in the literature, with a heightened focus on the relationship between researchers, research utilisation and policy development. However, fostering such linkages using a policy network approach has seldom been discussed. This article revisits a key framework…

Across the OECD, enormous effort and investment has been made to reinforce the quality, production and use of education research in policy and practice. Despite this, using research in education remains a challenge for many countries and systems. The OECD launched the Strengthening the Impact of Education Research project to respond to this…

Education policy continues to press for increased use of research evidence in decision-making, yet decades of research point to weak links between research and practice. We see evidence-informed improvement not as a problem with schools, but with a larger evidence-use ecosystem. As a step toward building and strengthening multidirectional paths…

Every year the federal government spends more than $600 billion on grants to fund programs and services in education, social sectors, and health. When deliberating such commitments, policymakers weigh evidence from research, practice, and their own experience while also navigating political pressure, the demands of their constituents, and…

Purpose: This article examines the state of progress of evidence-based educational policies in Europe and identifies organizations for the generation and dissemination of evidence. Further, it discusses some of the most relevant challenges facing the development of evidence-informed education policies in Europe. Design/Approach/Methods: This…