Since 2009, the Foundation has supported a range of studies that provide insight into how policymakers, administrators, and service providers acquire, interpret, and use research evidence, and how research use affects policy and program decisions. In 2016, the Foundation announced a bold new direction for this initiative, calling for studies that identify, create, and test strategies to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit youth.
Recently Added Resources
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From Big Data to Useful Research Evidence: Forging a Path Toward Better Youth Outcomes
What steps can we take to ensure that access to big data leads to the production of high-quality, useful research evidence? And what else do we need to know to ensure that this evidence is ultimately used by decision makers in ways that benefit youth?
Reducing InequalityDirections for Research: Reducing Inequality -
Studying the Use of Research Evidence: Supplemental Guidance
Understanding the problem of research use is not enough. As we embark on the next phase of this initiative, we want to support studies of how to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit youth.
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Research–Practice Partnerships in Education Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions
Policymakers, funders, and researchers today view research–practice partnerships (RPPs) as a promising approach for expanding the role of research in improving educational practice. Although studies in other fields provide evidence of the potential for RPPs, studies in education are few. This article provides a review of available evidence of the outcomes and dynamics of RPPs in education and related fields. It then outlines a research agenda for the study of RPPs that can guide funders’ investments and help developing partnerships succeed
Use of Research EvidenceResearch-Practice Partnerships -
Use of Research Evidence: Building Two-Way Streets
In this video, produced by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services, Vivian Tseng challenges the traditional paradigm of moving from “research to practice.” She suggests that researchers and evaluators need to think differently about the ways that research is acquired and used, and she describes steps they can take to close the gaps between research and practice.
Use of Research EvidenceEducation -
Leveraging Knowledge: Taking Stock of the William T. Grant Foundation’s Use of Research Evidence Grants Portfolio
In 2009, we launched an initiative to study research use in the worlds of policy and practice. Staff assumed that knowing more about the potential users of research would improve the production and use of research, which we defined as empirical evidence derived from systematic methods and analyses. Findings are now accumulating. This essay takes stock of what we are learning about the acquisition, interpretation, and use of research evidence, and briefly describes our call for proposals, cross-cutting themes, and key unanswered questions.
Use of Research EvidenceDirections for Research: the Use of Research Evidence -
Brokering the Research-Practice Gap: A Typology
Despite widespread recognition of a research–practice gap in multiple service sectors, less is known about how pre-existing communication channels facilitate the flow of information between researchers and practitioners. In the current study, we applied an existing typology of brokerage developed by Gould and Fernandez to examine what types of brokerage facilitate information spread between researchers and educational practitioners.
Use of Research EvidenceEducation -
Research-Practice-Policy Partnerships for Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Child Welfare and Child Mental Health
Describing the structure and operations of partnerships, and the potential challenges to making them work, Palinkas and colleagues present three models of successful partnerships in the child welfare and mental health systems. Case studies for each model provide rich examples of the common elements and central themes that characterize the value of partnerships as a strategy for delivering high quality services in high demand settings.
Use of Research EvidenceChild Mental Health -
Use of Research Evidence: Social Services Portfolio
Susan Maciolek synthesizes findings from Foundation-supported studies on the use of research evidence in domains including child welfare, child mental health, and justice. Maciolek, a former William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow, discusses the perspectives of policymakers and practitioners and what they might want to know as they consider using research evidence. She also provides insights that may enable researchers to contribute to a knowledge base that is more relevant and, ultimately, more useful in the realm of social services.
Use of Research EvidenceChild Mental Health -
Politics of Education Association Special Issue: The Politics of Research Utilization
Edited by Lubienski, Scott, and DeBray, this special issue of Educational Policy includes nine essays on topics related to research use in education, including the roles of district leaders and intermediary groups, school choice, research and diversity policy, and more.
Use of Research EvidenceEducation -
Building the Infrastructure to Improve the Use and Usefulness of Research in Education
Vivian Tseng and Sandra Nutley point the way forward for education researchers and policymakers, summarizing the key points made throughout Using Research Evidence in Education and concluding: “Research is not the next silver bullet for education reform, and simply mandating its use will not get us to our ultimate goals of better teaching and learning. … If we are committed to using research to enrich problem framing, decision making, and individual and organization learning in education, the next decade should focus on building trust, capacity, strong relationships, and the conditions for productive evidence integration.”
Use of Research EvidenceDirections for Research: the Use of Research Evidence -
Using Research Evidence in Education: From the Schoolhouse Door to Capitol Hill
Published by Spring and edited by Finnigan and Daly, this volume contains 12 chapters that examine how evidence is acquired and used at different levels of the education system.
Use of Research EvidenceEducation -
Research-Practice Partnerships Microsite
Outlining fundamental topics from structuring a partnership to funding and staffing, the site is the culminating project of the Foundation’s learning community of research–practice partnerships, which was convened twice annually from 2012–2014. This community includes partnerships from across the nation.
Use of Research EvidenceEducation -
Realizing the Potential of Research Evidence in Child Welfare
Research evidence has the potential to contribute to child welfare policy and practice, but we know little about its use and impact. We need stronger theories about how decision-makers engage with research evidence. We need studies that explore who uses research, when and why it is called upon, and how it is shared. We also need to understand how child welfare decision-makers integrate research with other types of evidence.
Use of Research EvidenceChild Welfare -
Forging Common Ground: Fostering the Conditions for Evidence Use
Vivian Tseng shares lessons she and colleagues have learned about ways to connect research, policy, and practice—and, ultimately, to forge common ground. This essay discusses the importance of creating conditions for the productive integration of evidence, paving two-way streets for learning, and building relationships and trust.
Use of Research EvidenceResearch-Practice Partnerships -
The Big Why: A Learning Agenda for the Scale-Up Movement
Policymakers and practitioners who believe that research evidence should inform policy and practice face several challenges. These include debates about the standards of evidence for allocating resources to programs, weak information on how to produce change at scale, and concerns that a few, well-evaluated programs will drive out others that deserve support.
Use of Research EvidenceEvidence-Based Policy
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