What allows research evidence to contribute to successful social policy and improve practice in public services? The establishment of the What Works Network, a group of evidence ‘clearing houses’, that summarise academic research evidence for practitioners in different policy areas, heralds a resurgence of evidence-based approaches in British policymaking. This report outlines the existing literature analysing the process of implementing evidence-informed policy, with a particular focus on the field of primary and secondary education. New data, based on interviews with teachers in primary and secondary schools, along with the analysis of existing literature, suggest that understanding the rationale for a particular policy approach and recognising relevant contextual factors are crucial for selecting and implementing successful policies. This suggests that local knowledge, as well as professional judgement and expertise, are critical contributors to policymaking alongside formal scientific research evidence.
Download Free PDF View PDF
Download Free PDF View PDF
Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth
Download Free PDF View PDF
The book addresses a number of pressing issues: how race, culture, power, and language affect actual classrooms and pedagogies; the social processes and school structures that can either hinder or support student learning; and the extent to which teachers have or should have control over their day-to-day instructional practices and decisions about their students. There has long been a troubling divide between education policy and practice. Meaningful school reform efforts have suffered as a consequence. Policymakers often propose educational reforms that fail to take into account real schools, teachers, and students. Practitioners in turn often fail to see beyond their immediate challenges to the larger issues that preoccupy policymakers." Education Policy and Practice" aims to promote more effective school reform by illuminating important connections between education policy and teaching and learning practice. The contributors to this collection focus on how to meet the n.
Download Free PDF View PDF
Download Free PDF View PDF
This article outlines the rationale for this special issue on educational policy implementation and provides an overview of the articles in this issue. In addition to summarizing each article, we point out how the findings from the different contributions complement, challenge, and complicate not only the findings and conclusions from other works in this issue, but also insights articulated by Honig (2006) and Odden (1991). We conclude with a discussion of the implications from these articles for educational policy implementation research. We begin this special issue by outlining what we attempted to set out to do when we initiated this project. The second section describes each of the manuscripts that comprise this special issue. Each article is written to stand alone in the discussion on education policy implementation. We recognize that they are a small sample of implementation studies in education. However, taken as a whole, these contributions will provide broader insight into the complexities of implementation and implementation research. We intentionally included studies of different policies, reforms that were initiated and funded by at different levels of
Download Free PDF View PDF
