William R. Penuel

The National Center for Research in Policy and Practice developed measures and tools to document research use in schools, described the conditions under which research is used and the factors that promote or inhibit research use in schools and school districts, and identified and examined researcher practices that were associated with greater use of research. In addition, the Center engaged in leadership and outreach activities that helped school and district leaders apply study findings, in...

In this study, the researchers proposed to test the efficacy of three competing approaches to improving teaching in middle school science education. The first would be providing teachers with high-quality curriculum units and with professional development and follow-up. The second would be to provide teachers with training in how to develop high-quality curriculum units aligned to local standards and time to develop these units, along with follow-up mentoring. The third approach would be pro...