"Proof," Policy, and Practice: Understanding the Role of Evidence in Improving Education

ISBN-13: 9781579227517 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Publication date: 12/17/2015 Edition description: New Edition Pages: 264 Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d) How can we “fix” our schools? Improve graduation rates in college? What works?These are questions that make the headlines and vex policy makers, practitioners, and educational researchers. While they strive to improve society, there are frequently gulfs of mutual incomprehension among them.Academics, longing for more influence, may wrongly fault irrationality, ideology, or ignorance for the failure of research to inform policy and practice more powerfully. Policy makers and practitioners may doubt that academics can deliver ideas that will reliably yield desirable results. This book bridges the divide. It argues that unrealistic expectations lead to both unproductive research and impossible standards for “evidence-based” policy and practice, and it offers promising ways for evidence to contribute to improvement.