This study examines the common standards movement to understand how education research is used in developing and promoting policy ideas, with a specific focus on the role of state and national policy entrepreneurs (policymakers, advocates, foundations, and researchers) in how research is interpreted, framed, and applied in policy. Three states will be selected for study based on their history of implementing education reforms, the nature of their standards and curricular adoption processes, and the degree of state policymakers’
participation in external networks. Data is being collected from interviews with public officials, researchers, advocates, foundation staff, and interest group representatives, as well as from observations of interactions among participants and document content analyses.
The common standards movement, which seeks to establish similar academic standards across multiple states, is rapidly gaining traction—the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have developed a set of core standards and the U.S. Department of Education has made common state standards a reform priority.
