EducationPR

Over at The Education Sector Erin Dillon posts about this week’s AERA annual meeting –her first– and says that “while the discussion about relevance and getting research into the hands of decision makers was encouraging, it doesn’t change the fact that much of the research coming out of the education research community is inaccessible.”

She says it’s inaccessible for two reasons: “Because of the overly-complicated, technical language used, and also is literally inaccessible—locked away in journals too costly for anyone but universities to access on a large scale.”

Erin suggests that researchers should keep in mind “that they are, in essence, selling their research to policymakers and practitioners. And if you’re trying to sell something, you take the product to your customer and you sell it in their language, not expect your customer to start speaking yours.”

Erin is far from alone in this view. The same theme was raised repeatedly during the course of the annual meeting. AERA’s communication and outreach committee and government relations committee have their work cut out for them.

I’m now on the communication and research committee, and take Erin’s comments to heart.

I wish I could assume the other committee folks would see your post. But I can’t assume that, so I’d encourage you, and others concerned about this topic, to shoot ‘em an email.

On Capitol Hill “Academics often are not even let into the building. And even if they come in as Fellows, they are treated as incompetent and slow-moving interns.” Alexander Russo of This Week in Education drew on his experience as a former Capitol Hill aide to offer advice for getting more education research into public policy.

At this morning’s AERA session “From Research to Policy to Practice,” Russo urged researchers to acknowledge the clash between their culture of methodical long-term projects and that of harried legislative staff. He likened Hill staffers to hummingbirds: They’re “fluttery, fast, anxious, all over the place.” To get their attention you have to give them something relevant to pending legislation.

If researchers want to improve education policy they have to keep up with what is happening in the policy world, he said. “Come out of your cave and get up to speed on what policy people are doing.”

When talking to legislators and their staffs, he emphasized, be really brief, and really practical. Phrase things in terms of “I think there should be an amendment.” “There should be a funding change of X dollars for X program.”

Even a five-page research summary is too long, he said. He suggested translating research into statutory language when possible.

If you’re not satisfied with the influence your research has, then study and imitate the strategies of media influentials, even if you may not agree with their point of view, Russo said. “Education policy think tanks are very effective with the media and policymakers, because their tactics include issuing embargoed reports, issuing preliminary findings, and setting up conference calls with reporters.”

“Think about the successes of the handful of academics who have broken through,” he said. “How have Diane Ravitch, Eric Hanushek, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Gary Orfield managed to get their work into the public arena? Steal their strategies.”

Russo said he had noticed “not a lot” of education journalists or policymakers here at this conference. “Is there a way to convince or cajole or invite those folks to be here? If there were current congressional staffers or state legislative staffers here that would be great.”