Giving Compass' Take:

• Mark Schneider, Director of the Insitute of Education Sciences, is making it his goal to produce education research relevant for teachers and take into consideration their needs to improve instruction. 

• Why is it important to design programs that are helpful for teachers by incorporating teacher voice in the process? 

• Read about how to ensure that education research reaches teachers. 

Research shows that good teachers are the most important ingredient that schools can provide to help students succeed. This is especially true for struggling schools.

Now here’s something we’re realizing about our current education research: Too few educators feel that the research that the US government supports has a tangible impact on their work in the classroom. That’s something that has to change.

Last March, I was appointed as Director of the Institute of Education Sciences. In fiscal 2019, our agency is slated to spend more than $400 million on research in education.

My goal is to make information useful, usable and used. Over the past few weeks, in partnership with the Jefferson Education Exchange, IES staff has traveled to both Nebraska and North Carolina to meet with teachers and explore ways we can make IES’s research more relevant and useful.

Many told us they felt that their professional knowledge is all too often neglected in education research and, to use a common phrasing, that research was “done to them not with them.”

We also saw a disconnect between what teachers say they needed help with and what education research can accomplish. For example, a common concern among participants is how social media is transforming the kinds and sources of information students brought into the classroom.

Perhaps most disappointing, the Regional Education Labs (RELs) were mostly unknown. Although RELs work most directly with state and district leaders, their services and resources are available to all—including teachers.

We need to figure out the best channels to get that information into the hands of teachers, so that more students have teachers who are using the most effective, evidence-based methods.

Read the full article about education research for teachers by Mark Schneider at EdSurge