Research in Education

The Institute of Education Sciences new director John Q. Easton.  It’s expected that there will be a shift in the kinds of educational research the government supports.  Education Week writes:

The shift “is kind of an interesting next step for IES,” said Gerald E. Sroufe, the director of government relations for the Washington-based American Educational Research Association.

“Clearly, the emphasis was on rigorous research methods,” he added. “I think the new method is going to be to look at what would make research more relevant.”

Under Mr. Whitehurst, the institute’s first director, the agency moved early to increase funding for studies using randomized controlled trials and other rigorous methods in response to widespread dissatisfaction among policymakers and practitioners with the quality of education research.

The agency also created the What Works Clearinghouse, which vetted the research evidence on education programs and policies and made the results widely available on a user-friendly Web site.

One wonders, in light of these shifts, what it would look like for research on the local and school and classroom level to be more supported.  How can hundreds of millions that the IES has in its pockets work not only for systemic change from the state and district level up, but from classrooms too?

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