Bacon and Stewart (2016) argued that assurance of learning efforts in most business schools is largely futile--a stance held by many faculty members, for a variety of reasons. They provided detailed evidence that most schools' data collection efforts for assessment, particularly in graduate or niche programs, suffers from insufficient statistical…

Based on a review of GPA and SAT/ACT requirements at 221 institutions in 25 states, a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) recommends that states, institutions of higher education, and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) maintain or establish a higher bar for entry into teacher preparation…

Improving student learning is the primary goal of every teacher of algebra. Teachers seek strategies to help all students learn important algebra content and develop mathematical practices. The new Institute of Education Sciences[IES] practice guide, "Teaching Strategies for Improving Algebra Knowledge in Middle and High School Students"…

A decade ago, it was disconcertingly easy to find education leaders who dismissed student achievement data and systematic research as having only limited utility when it came to improving schools or school systems. Today, we have come full circle. Educators have made great strides in using data, and it is hard to attend an education conference or…

The last article in a special issue on organizational research utilization, this paper discusses "solution environments" (the real or assumed distribution of good and bad solutions to problems), the models underlying the environments, the generation of these models, and solution environments' relationship to research utilization.…

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…

There are circumstances and threats that make it difficult to use the social sciences to help solve practical problems. For example, information that arrives too late will not be used. Yet, too late is not often defined. However, social and organizational psychology can be used to develop strategies to overcome these threats. (RM)

In this article, three theoretical perspectives are used to extend Bulterman-Bos's (2008) argument regarding a clinical approach to education research. First, three intellectual virtues identified by Aristotle--"episteme," "techne," and "phronesis"--are related to the requirements of the "pure" education researcher, the skilled practitioner, and…

In the wake of the United Nations' Year of the Child, U.S. public policy affecting the welfare of children at risk is found wanting. The misguided notions underlying many official positions, along with suggested modifications based on well-researched principles of child development, are presented. (Author)

Increasingly, teachers--but also parents and politicians--voice dissatisfaction with the divide they experience between research and practice and the resulting minimal impact of teacher education (Ashton, 1996; Barone, Berliner, Blanchard, Casanova, & McGowan, 1996). The problem seems to be perennial. More than a century ago, John Dewey pointed…

A speech by Chancellor Donna E. Shalala of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is presented; it calls for a broadening university commitment to societal issues and for the university to engage in basic research on social policy issues in a fashion similar to the fundamental science and technology research currently undertaken. The lecture…

This article explores the applicability of interdisciplinary research on the implementation of technological innovations to the field of e-learning research. Arguing that there are important ways in which e-learning systems can be treated as "technological innovations," this article presents a review of several key theoretical and research design…

This commentary observes that the contributions to this special issue of this journal not only show that the question of the relationship between research and practice is still very much alive today but they are also testimony to the persistent nature of this question. This suggests that the issue of the relationship between research and practice…

Three issues emanating from the Bulterman-Bos article (2008) form the core of this commentary. First, the issue of relevancy is addressed from the standpoint of action research and other forms of practitioner inquiry. From this perspective, the divisions between the cultures of university and school are addressed both ways: Each can potentially be…

Argues research on the efficacy of special education is poor. Describes key flaws including (1) lack of proper control groups; (2) studies that utilize matching of similarly disabled students rather than random selection; (3) measurements of effectiveness; and (4) studies that have become outdated as the functional definitions of labels have…