The EdResearch for Action Overview Series summarizes the research on key topics to provide K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students. Authors - leading experts from across the field of education research - are charged with highlighting key findings from research that…

The evidence-based decision-making movement often assumes that once evidence is available (e.g., via the What Works Clearinghouse), decision-makers will integrate it into their practice. Research-practice partnership studies have shown this is not always true. In this paper, we argue that instead of assuming research will be useful and used, we…

Building bridges among education stakeholders is an important but underused strategy for creating a culture in which professional learning is seen as a shared responsibility. The National Center for School-University Partnerships, headquartered at the University of Mississippi, has embraced improvement science as a core strategy in its…

Successful implementation of school-wide interventions (i.e., delivered to all students by a wide array of school personnel) is key to promoting students' academic achievement and psychosocial development. Yet, the implementation of school-wide interventions is complex and can be psychologically taxing for implementing personnel. If evidence-based…

Successful implementation of school-wide interventions (i.e., delivered to all students by a wide array of school personnel) is key to promoting students' academic achievement and psychosocial development. Yet, the implementation of school-wide interventions is complex and can be psychologically taxing for implementing personnel. If evidence-based…

Efficient use of resources depends upon many factors, but one key variable is the extent to which we design and implement activities which require funding in a way that is informed by relevant evidence. The application of insights about 'what works', derived from robust research, combined with evidence about context and real-time system data have,…

Many of the resources developed to promote the use of evidence in policy aspire to an ideal of rational decision making, yet their basis in the decision sciences is often unclear. Tracing the historical development of evidence-informed policy to its roots in "evidence-based medicine" (EBM), we distinguish between two understandings of…

Improvement initiatives crafted based on well-understood problems of practice often stand the greatest chance of leading to sustainable educational improvements. Framing problems of practice using multiple modes of evidence is advisable to fully understand the system of root causes of the problem and its stakeholders. In this study, we used the…

Constructive changes in the practice of investigative interviewing have emerged as a direct result of an unprecedented and robust collaboration between behavioral science researchers and professionals in the field. At the same time, an ever-increasing number of experienced practitioners have shown a willingness to adopt science-based methods in…

The research community focuses on conducting research with the purported goal of improving educational practice, yet the two communities largely remain disjointed. This chapter explores the major disconnects between research and practice from the perspectives of both the practice and the research communities, and we present strategies for…

Background: The Medical Model of disability focuses on diagnosed conditions. It is used in policy particularly to categorise people. This enables predictions and forecasting about the size of policy needs but tends to homogenise disability representations, assigning a negative evaluation to illness that may be irrespective of patho-anatomical…

Background: In an era of increased polarisation, identity politics and growing reliance on using evidence to make disability policy decisions - evidence-based policymaking - how much do we know about the process by which disability policy decisions are made and the use of evidence therein? Aims and objectives: The objective of this Practice Paper…

This paper discusses, compares, and contrasts 4 different models for bringing evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) into practice and into practical reasoning. I look at what questions the models can and cannot answer, what role they accord to RCT evidence, and what their possible attraction for practitioners might be. The models are…

Using findings from research and evaluation is essential to facilitate evidence-informed decision making across the adult learning and skills sector. This is especially pertinent at a time of rapid and far reaching change in how adult education is funded, commissioned and delivered. It is important to understand how and in what ways evidence is…

Background: It is challenging to keep systematic reviews (SR) current and updated. Cochrane designated some of its SRs as "stable," that is, not in need of updating. The issue of stabilizing an SR is an important in research synthesis, because it could help reduce research waste. The aim of this study was to analyze publicly available…