Giving Compass' Take:

• A survey of teachers from across the country conducted by Jefferson Education Exchange reveals how teachers access (and don't access) education research. 

• How can funders increase access to and use of education research? 

• Research is only as impactful as its reach. 

Who are the responding educators?

  • A total of 1,334 educators responded to an online survey: 144 were educators attending a
    convening that included the survey and 1,190 received the survey from their professional
    educator associations.
  • Educators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia responded to the survey.
  • 44 associations are represented on the survey, covering diverse student and educator
    populations in terms of race/ethnicity, subject area, roles, school level, and special
    education status.
  • Responding educators have worked in education for an average of 21.48
    (SD = 11.06) years.
  • The majority of responding educators:
    • work in public schools (including public charters), and their schools are located in
      a spread of city (40%), suburb (29%), rural (21%), and town (10%) locales.
    • work in PreK-12 contexts (89%) in instructional/support roles (92%).
    • hold master’s degrees (59%).
  • The top subject areas represented at the convening were science (13%), arts (11%), and
    math (11%), while the top three subjects for association members were social studies
    (10%), science (8%), and math (6%).
  • Convening attendees most frequently identified working with gifted and talented students
    (10%), and association members most frequently reported working with students
    designated as special education (11%).

How do educators access research?

  • Educators most frequently access research at least once in a year from blog/news articles
    (94%), journal articles (92%), colleagues who read research (91%), and professional
    conferences (91%).
  • Educators do not access research as frequently through vendors (69%) or on podcasts or
    radio shows (62%).
  • If educators do access research through journal abstracts, journal articles or blog/news
    articles, the majority access research seven or more times in a year.
  • If educators do access research through education vendors or professional conferences,
    the majority access research only one to two times in a year.
  • Educators most frequently access research through online searches.
  • Of the IES education sources, educators most frequently use the ERIC database to
    access research.
  • Half of higher education respondents (50%) access research through ERIC, while just over
    one quarter (28%) of preK-12 respondents use ERIC.
  • PreK-12 educators access research through IES resources (NCES, NCER/NCSER, and
    ERIC) less than those in higher education.
  • PreK-12 educators in instructional or support roles access IES research with similar
    frequency as PreK-12 educators in administrative roles.

How do educators feel about research?

Educators most want to learn about research findings in ways that are:

  • Actionable (results accompanied by directions (M = 5.80) and demonstrations about
    applying research (5.42)).
  • Contextualized for their own needs (presentations tailored to their needs (M = 5.51)
    and discussion with their colleagues (M = 5.62)).

To what extent do educators want to participate in research?

  • Educators agree that they and national educator associations should influence
    research topics.
  • Educators more strongly agree that they should influence research topics than educator
    associations (see comparison to educators).
  • Educators overwhelmingly have opinions about what researchers should study (89%).
  • Over half of those educators would like to get involved with research (59%).