What Research Leaders Need to Make Evidence Matter

In a former professional role, I had the privilege of leading research and evaluation at the Ohio Department of Education (now Ohio Department of Education and Workforce). It was a dream job, fulfilling my curiousity and drive to learn - and one I’d worked toward for years.

State level education research remains a passion. Through my work at Results for America, I was thrilled to collaborate with the Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI) to co-write a piece on what state education research leads need to be effective.

While we focused on state education research leadership, the key takeaways are true for any organization aiming to embed effective research into their culture.

Research leaders - whether at state education agencies or other organizations - can help make evidence work for the people they serve when they are empowered by:
✳️ Cross-state peer networks;
✳️ A culture of learning within their agency;
✳️ Proximity to those they serve; and
✳️ A robust data infrastructure that includes both cross-sector, longitudinal data AND the human capacity to make sense of it all.

Read more in our blog post “Four Things State Education Agency Research Leads Need to Make Evidence Work for Students.”