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.

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