In Ireland, as elsewhere, there has been growing recognition around the importance of using research evidence to inform educational policy and practice at both a national government and individual school level. Despite such importance, there is currently a dearth of empirical, peer-reviewed studies regarding the use of research evidence in the…

With many distractions competing for students' attention, student engagement and knowledge retention are more important than ever. "Where Learning Happens" explores the types of attention--sustained, selective, divided, and effective--in depth and provides research-suggested strategies to maximize student attention and engagement. By…

Purpose: The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) requires districts to deliver "evidence-based interventions" to students impacted by the pandemic. The policy has created a unique opportunity for researchers and practitioners to engage with evidence to learn how recovery interventions work and under what conditions.…

Background: This article comes in response to two gaps within the research use literature: a lack of work on quality of use as distinct from quality of evidence, and a lack of research use models based on practitioner, as opposed to researcher, perspectives. Aims and objectives: The study probes into the views of education practitioners about…

The Every Student Succeeds Act builds on prior efforts to bridge the gap between research and practice through the imposition of evidence requirements. This article presents findings from a small-scale micro-process study of three districts in one state during their first year of implementing those requirements. Informed by past conceptualizations…

Social Scientists, educators, and parents have often thought of parental engagement as being a major force affecting school outcomes. Over the last more than two decades, there have been some very noteworthy advancements in the understanding of the workings of parental engagement in urban settings. A lot of this progress is due to the growth of:…

Despite calls for evidence-based decision making, the field has a limited understanding of how educational leaders actually engage research. This study draws on a nationally representative sample of 368 district and school leaders who named pieces of research that were useful to their work. Educational leaders found frameworks and practical…

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…

Current research aiming to understand the gaps between research and practice in K-12 education often overlooks the importance of grasping the indirect relationships that develop between research and practice communities via the various people and organizations positioned to serve as knowledge brokers. The purpose of this study is to understand…