Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

Scholars’ Findings Must Be Part of K-12 Conversation

By James E. Ryan — January 09, 2015 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Education Week Commentary asked three education school deans the following question: How Does an Edu-Scholar Influence K-12 Policy? Below is a response from Harvard’s James E. Ryan.
Read more: Academics Can’t Shy Away From Public Role | Focus Research on K-12 Practice Needs

In thinking about whether academics should be encouraged to participate more in the public conversation about K-12 education, it helps to begin by considering what they might contribute. There is no shortage of opinions about education, nor is there a shortage of pundits eager to share theirs. So it can’t be that academics are needed simply to keep the conversation going. Many insightful participants are already in the debate.

What academics can offer is their expertise. This, in turn, suggests that we ought to distinguish between academics, on the one hand, and their ideas and research on the other, and we should be mostly concerned that their ideas and research are part of the conversation. If academics personally want to take part in debates about K-12 education, they should be encouraged to do so when they can share their expertise faithfully. Given the distorting tendencies of the public square, however, this is not always easy.

The real challenge, as I see it, is that many higher-ed faculty members have neither the time nor the inclination to be full participants in the ongoing conversation due, in part, to the highly politicized nature of the conversation. As a result, the good research and creative ideas of academic experts are often left to languish in academic journals. This is a genuine problem, because it means that the opinions often formed and offered by those outside the academic walls are done so without reference to existing evidence about what works and what does not. This is also not a problem that faculty alone should be expected to solve.

Instead, commentators—both pundits and journalists—as well as academic institutions can and should play a role. Pundits could pay more attention to existing research and evidence, bringing informed ideas and knowledge into the conversation and distinguishing between strong and specious studies. Too often, education commentary is devoid of evidence, and education reporting, in an effort to appear balanced, presents evidence on both sides of an issue as if the research is in equipoise when, in reality, it is quite lopsided. This fuels the false impression that collectively we know little about education, gives perverse incentives to researchers, and cheapens all education research by treating weak studies with the same respect as rigorous ones.

Institutions of higher education can and should help by disseminating ideas and research produced by their faculties in a way that is accessible to nonacademics. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, for example, we have created the Usable Knowledge website. It offers brief summaries of the key findings of faculty research, faculty Q&As, and relevant video demonstrations. Rather than place the responsibility for disseminating the work on the shoulders of our researchers, we have created a small team that helps our faculty translate its research for players in the K-12 field—teachers, principals, policymakers, and pundits—who may lack the time and expertise to wade through a long article in an academic journal. The hope, of course, is that the good work produced by our faculty will not only enter the public debate, but also influence it positively. That should be the goal of our role in the public square: to ensure that the work of researchers is included in the K-12 conversation.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the January 14, 2015 edition of Education Week as Make Research Accessible

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management This Intervention Cut Course Failures by a Third. How It Works
Participating schools saw decreases in absenteeism and course failures
4 min read
Photo illustration of F letter grade and trending downward arrow.
Education Week + Getty
School & District Management What We Know About How ICE Raids Disrupt Student Learning
Past and present research studies found broad implications of immigration enforcement on students' school attendance.
5 min read
Jennifer Hosler, center, a pastor and parent of a child who attends Mundo Verde Public Charter School, leads parents and staff in a chant of solidarity as they keep watch for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in front of the school, amid fears of impending arrests at schools, Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
Jennifer Hosler, center, a pastor and parent of a child who attends Mundo Verde Public Charter School, leads parents and staff in a chant of solidarity as they keep watch for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in front of the school, amid fears of impending arrests at schools, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. A new study found that immigration raids lead to increases in student absences, interrupting student learning.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
School & District Management Opinion What School Leaders Can Learn From ‘How to Train Your Dragon’
Many educators feel out of sync with their leadership. This kids’ movie imagines a new way forward.
Kevin Wood
3 min read
What the new How to Train Your Dragon movie can remind us about leadership, schooling, and systems. "Leadership born in uncertainty, having the courage to imagine new ways
forward, and about the quiet strength it takes to care for what others fear."
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management How Top Principals Are Tackling Teacher Morale and Other Challenges
Finalists for the National Principal of the Year Award share how they work to be strong instructional leaders for their schools.
Principals Lead
Clockwise from upper left: Damon Lewis, the principal of Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy; Miguel Salazar, the principal of Sundown Middle School; Sherilynn Boehlert, the principal of Schoenbar Middle School; Tony Cattani, the principal of Lenape High School; Terita Walker, the principal of East High School; and Shauna Haney, principal of Ogden High School. These are the finalists for the 2025-26 National High School and Middle School Principals of the Year awards.