The tangled relationship between education research and policy has received little serious scrutiny, even as paeans to "scientifically based research" and "evidence-based practice" have become a staple of education policymaking in recent years. For all the attention devoted to the five-year-old Institute of Education Sciences,…

Introduction: The present study aimed to generate a model that would provide a conceptual framework for linking disparate components of knowledge translation. A theoretical model of such would enable the organization and evaluation of attempts to analyze current conditions and to design interventions on the transfer and utilization of research…

The issue of research dissemination via websites is part of the larger research utilization question, and the authors begin with a review of literature on the theory and best practices in dissemination. The second part of the study involves an exploratory examination of the websites and dissemination practices of 30 research centers focusing on…

How can educational research have more impact? What processes of knowledge exchange are most effective for increasing the uses of research results? How can research-produced knowledge be better "mobilized" among users such as practicing educators, policy makers, and the public communities? These sorts of questions are commanding urgent…

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:…

In moving health and social service programs from planning into action, it is essential to understand the extent to which the knowledge gained from research should influence the actions taken by organizations and agencies that provide services (e.g., government, nongovernment organizations [NGOs]). The complexity of the challenges in translating…

Universities have long been involved in knowledge transfer activities. Yet the last 30 years have seen major changes in the governance of university-industry interactions. Knowledge transfer has become a strategic issue: as a source of funding for university research and (rightly or wrongly) as a policy tool for economic development. Universities…

This annotated bibliography contains selected references to 202 recently published articles and books on the subject of research utilization. Criteria for inclusion in the bibliography are discussed, as well as disciplines and specialties which contribute to the subject of research utilization, a core collection on research utilization which can…

Previous studies show that infants can compute either the total continuous extent (e.g. Clearfield, M.W., & Mix, K.S. (1999). Number versus contour length in infants' discrimination of small visual sets. Psychological Science, 10(5), 408-411; Feigenson, L., & Carey, S. (2003). Tracking individuals via object-files: evidence from infants' manual…

Most assessment arguments are about measurement. When is it better to use direct versus indirect measures of student learning? Is one standardized test of critical thinking better than another? Is applying rubrics to student work better than using standardized tests? How valid are self-reported measures of learning? Although these arguments are…

In this paper, I take the position that in order for education policy makers and teachers to reform teaching and learning, they must be good consumers of education research. Good consumers of education research understand that education is a complex endeavor and as such resist accepting findings that simplify or complicate teaching and learning. A…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have increased the emphasis on analyzing data on disproportionality. Data required to answer basic questions include: (1) total number of students enrolled; (2) total number of each racial/ethnic group enrolled; (3) total number of students in the category under…

Technical terms such as "meta-analysis," research synthesis," and "effect size" may sound alien to practitioners in the field of education. Due to limited knowledge on meta-analysis among educators, the results of meta-analyses seldom translate from research to classroom practice--even though meta-analyses may provide valuable information on how…

Responding to Bulterman-Bos (2008), the author argues that the effort to make education research more relevant is counterproductive. Teachers and researchers have different orientations toward education that arise from different institutional settings, occupational constraints, daily work demands, and professional incentives. These are not…

The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in 2003 in the affirmative action cases of "Gratz v. Bollinger" (2003) and "Grutter v. Bollinger" (2003), sometimes referred to as the "Michigan cases," provided the first indication of the role that race-conscious admission policies will play in higher education in the new century since the Court's decision…