Making Sense of the Call for Scientifically Based Research in Education

Abstract

In an unprecedented move the U.S. government has essentially defined scientifically based research by law (The No Child Left Behind Act, 2001) as the use of randomized controlled trials to provide solid evidence of what works in education to policy makers, teachers, parents, researchers, and other consumers of research. This definition is now enacted and supported by a national and international review process (e.g., The Campbell Collaborative, The What Works Clearinghouse [WWC]) and by government funding practices (e.g., The Institute of Education Sciences [IES]) as well as other funding agencies. Scientifically based research, so defined, has been placed at center stage since the creation in 2000 of the Campbell Collaborative, an international “non-profit organization that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about the effects of interventions in the social, behavioral, and educational arenas” with the aim “to prepare, maintain and disseminate systematic reviews of studies of interventions” using randomized controlled trials (The Campbell Collaboration, 2000). The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) also makes more than a hundred references to scientifically based research and many websites of the state department of education contain lengthy documents to draw school districts’ attention to the requirement of implementing scientifically based programs in the schools in order to receive federal funding.