A Comprehensive Research Program

To motivate new approaches to increase research use in schools, Rethinking Research 4 Schools implements a focused program of research to measure the nature and depth of research use, identify the factors that hinder or support research use, and deepen our understanding of the relationships and links between people and organizations that support research use.

We do this through a two-pronged approach guided by the following research questions:

  1. How can we measure schools’ use of evidence, including research, and conditions that constrain or support use?
  2. What is the nature and depth of schools’ use of evidence, including research, to inform policy and practice?
  3. What is the nature and extent of the gaps and connections between research and practice communities?
  4. To what extent can the gaps and connections explain variability in depth of evidence use broadly, and research use more specifically?
  5. What lessons can be learned from cases of deep research use? What strategies can schools and researchers use to enhance research use more broadly?

Our Guiding Framework

Activities in both the research and practice communities must be enhanced to increase evidence use in decision-making.

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Testing Our Framework

Our Measurement Study produces, pilots, and validates seven instruments developed to measure research production and use from both the practitioner and researcher perspectives.

Our Descriptive Studies identify the school-based factors as well as the researcher practices that influence schools’ depth of research use by exploring the gaps and connections between research and practice.

Measurement Study
Descriptive Studies