Report #3
Educating Researchers
May 2007

This is the third in a series of policy reports on the results of a four-year study of America's education schools. This report focuses on the need for quality education research and on the preparation of the scholars and researchers who conduct it.

After more than two decades of a school improvement movement, education research, traditionally an academic matter of little public interest, has taken onnew importance. In today's assessment-driven, standards-based school systems, it is essential to be able to measure what students learn. It is also critical in a timewhen a cornucopia of reform measures are being touted and a plethora ofimprovement initiatives are being undertaken to know what works. In an erawhen the nation needs a more educated population to compete globally andsustain a democratic society, we need to advance our knowledge of teaching andlearning. In an age when our children need higher-level skills and knowledgethan ever before to get a decent job, it is important to understand whateducational policies and practices are most effective.

Hand in hand with our need to find answers to the educational challengesthat face us, we need to agree on what constitutes "good" research and on howbest to prepare education researchers, the next generation of scholars, to study education and to teach in the nation's universities and colleges. Today, researchers, policymakers and practitioners disagree about both subjects.

This is the context for the third report. The first focused on the education of school administrators. The second dealt with the education of school teachers.This third report examines the quality of education research and the preparation of education scholars and researchers.

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