In this issue

Put simply, the dichotomy of rigor versus relevance is false. There is no inevitable trade-off between producing rigorous research and producing research with relevance for the real world. Researchers who want their work to matter in policy and practice should …
Bringing Rigor to Relevant Questions
How can research to improve the lives of youth in the United States also benefit the other 95 percent of the world’s youth? Questions like this highlight the urgency of bringing the highest levels of rigor to relevant research.
Integrating Rigor and Relevance in Research: Three Questions
By moving accountability systems from the federal to the state level and highlighting the importance of English learner progress in accountability, ESSA provides an opportunity to develop state accountability systems that better support the learning of ELs. Assessments and data …
Learning English in the Era of the Every Student Succeeds Act
As we approach policy changes that present important opportunities for researchers, I would like to share some “meditations” about language, as well as the worlds of education policy and practice, which I have repeated to myself over the years as …
Meditations on Language and Learning: ESSA in Policy and Practice
We recognize that no single effort will be transformative, but we hope that our collective efforts as researchers, research funders, universities, and professional associations can support research that, over the long term, improves the lives of young people.
Promoting Research That Is Both Rigorous and Relevant
Strengthening practice and policy in state and local education systems will be an essential part of reducing inequality for young people in the coming years. And a fundamental piece of the effort to raise student outcomes will be building and …
Toward New Research and New Data

More Digest Issues

The Digest

Issue 9: Winter 2023-24

The ninth issue of the Digest features an update on the Institutional Challenge Grant program five years after its launch, with insights from a Foundation stock-taking effort and reflections from two grantee teams. We also share new thinking on the use of research evidence, including ways for researchers to leverage existing findings to bolster studies of effective strategies to improve research use.
The Digest

Issue 8: Winter 2022-23

The eighth issue of the Digest features insights about where new research might help identify ways to reduce inequality in youth outcomes after COVID-19, as well as how the fields of implementation science and research on research use might learn from each other in ways that yield more transformative research in years ahead.
The Digest

Issue 7: Winter 2021-22

The seventh issue of the Digest includes fresh insights from program staff and grantees on how researchers can successfully confront the challenges of studying causal mechanisms for reducing inequality, as well as how the global community of researchers and funders focused on improving the use of research evidence can continue to break new ground in the years ahead.
The Digest

Issue 6: Winter 2020-21

Essays in this issue of the Digest focus on the importance of looking beyond individual action and customary metrics in research on reducing inequality, as well as how strengths-based, race-conscious research can be produced and used to uplift communities of color.
The Digest

Issue 5: Winter 2019-20

The fifth issue of the William T. Grant Foundation Digest features insights from program staff and grantees on the importance of looking beneath the surface to consider the underlying factors that create and shape challenges that social scientists seek to address, whether they be related to reducing inequality in youth outcomes or improving the use of research evidence in policy and practice.
The Digest

Issue 4: Winter 2018/19

The fourth issue of the William T. Grant Foundation Digest features insights that may point the way toward a more nuanced understanding of evidence use and inspire new and more wide-ranging examinations of ways to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.
The Digest

Issue 3: Winter 2017/18

The third issue of the William T. Grant Foundation Digest features insights on how research on ability tracking can inform studies to improve the outcomes of English learners, as well as how researchers and school districts can partner to build learning systems based on research evidence.
The Digest

Issue 1: Summer 2016

The introductory issue of the William T. Grant Foundation Digest features essays and commentary on the value of qualitative and mixed-methods research in reducing inequality and the potential for researcher access to big data to yield useful research evidence.

Subscribe for Updates