Lynn Okagaki

University of Delaware

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE AND EDUCATION POLICY

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (1999)

One striking fact is that the complex world of education - unlike defense, health care, or industrial production - does not rest on a strong research base. In no other field are personal experience and ideology so frequently relied on to make policy choices, and in no other field is the research base so inadequate and little used.

JANUARY 8, 2002

The phrase pops up over and over, mantra-like, in the new federal education law: “scientifically based research.” Those words, or an approximation, appear more than 100 times in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act…. Reflected in that repetition is a desire by Congress and the Bush administration to base school improvement efforts less on intuition and experience and more on research-based evidence.

Olson & Viadero, 2002

PRACTICE TO BE GROUNDED IN SCIENTIFICALLY BASED RESEARCH

• Strategies for comprehensive school reform

• Technical assistance to schools

• Professional development in schools

• Reading instruction

• Curriculum

• Distance learning programs

• State reform activities

THE TENSION BETWEEN RESEARCH AND POLICY

EVEN START FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM

Even Start provides “grants to support local family literacy projects that integrate early childhood education, adult literacy, parenting education, and interactive parent and child literacy activities for low-income families.”

U.S. Department of Education

• Based on early childhood research

• 3 national evaluations show no impact on child outcomes

• Program is now winding down

EVEN START FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM

READING FIRST

“To provide assistance to State educational agencies and local educational agencies in establishing reading programs for students in kindergarten through grade 3 that are based on scientifically based reading research, to ensure that every student can read at grade level or above not later than the end of grade 3.”

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

READING FIRST

• Based on scientific research

• IES conducts rigorous national evaluation

READING FIRST EVALUATION

• Positive impact on amount of instructional time spent on the 5 essential components of reading instruction

• Positive impact on school-wide practices promoted by RF (PD, reading coaches, amount of reading instruction, supports for struggling readers)

• Positive impact on decoding in first graders• No effect on reading comprehension• End of program

TENNESSEE STAR EVALUATION

• Children and teachers randomly assigned to small or regular-sized classes with or without aides

• Effect of small class compared to regular-sized class = .25 on standardized achievement tests at the end of first grade

POLICYMAKERS AND RESEARCH

The fact is that there has not been enough value placed on the need for education research as a means to drive good policy. The reasons are simple enough: sometimes good research tells us things we don’t want to hear and good research is expensive and time-consuming—attributes which don’t always conform to the reality of Washington budgetary priorities and political expediency.

Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE), 2000

WHAT’S LIMITING THE USE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION POLICY?

• We don’t have a good track record – we have to be more careful in our claims

WHAT’S LIMITING THE USE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION POLICY?

• We don’t have a good track record – we have to be more careful in our claims

• We need to be more precise in our logic models – what are the active ingredients of our interventions

• Small class = 13 to 17 students

• Large class = 22 to 26 students

• Certified teachers

• Regular classrooms

• Small class = 20 students or less

• Large class = 29 students

• Teachers with emergency credentials

• Not enough classrooms

TENNESSEE CALIFORNIA

WHAT’S LIMITING THE USE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION POLICY?

• We don’t have a good track record – we have to be more careful in our claims

• We need to be more precise in our logic models – what are the active ingredients of our interventions

• We still don’t have a lot of evidence to support education policy and practice

WHAT’S LIMITING THE USE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION POLICY?

• We don’t have a good track record – we have to be more careful in our claims

• We need to be more precise in our logic models – what are the active ingredients of our interventions?

• We still don’t have a lot of evidence to support education policy and practice

• We have to learn how to communicate to policymakers

BIG SHIPS TURN SLOWLY