How School and District Leaders Access, Perceive, and Use Research - A Survey Study

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cipher

The study examines how school and district leaders access, value, and use research evidence to inform educational decisions. Using a representative national sample, 733 leaders completed a survey measuring research use prevalence, attitudes toward research, and individual and organizational correlates. Leaders reported frequent research use and generally positive attitudes. Access occurred mainly through professional networks, with higher use among certain roles, leaders pursuing advanced degrees, and those in evidence-using organizational cultures. Findings indicate support policies should reflect varied types of research use.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Study purpose and context

National and local policy pressures

Research access and use gaps

Research questions and method

Survey questions

Conceptual framework

Key findings and implications

AERA Open April-June 2017, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 1–17 DOI: 10. 1177/2332858417705370 © The Author(s) 2017. [http://ero.sagepub.com](http://ero.sagepub.com) How School and District Leaders Access, Perceive, and Use Research William R. Penuel Derek C. Briggs Kristen L. Davidson University of Colorado Boulder Corinne Herlihy David Sherer Heather C. Hill Harvard University Caitlin Farrell Anna-Ruth Allen University of Colorado Boulder This study examined how school and district leaders access, value, and use research. From a representative sample of school districts across the United States, we surveyed 733 school and district leaders as part of an effort to develop understanding of the prevalence of research use, the nature of leaders’ attitudes toward research, and individual and organizational correlates of research use. School and district leaders alike reported frequent use of research use and generally positive attitudes toward research. Leaders reported accessing research primarily through their professional networks. Those in certain roles, those pursuing or holding an advanced degree, and those who reported a strong organizational culture of evidence use reported higher levels of research use. These findings suggest that policy efforts to promote evidence use among education leaders will be welcomed but that policy makers need to take into account the prevalence of various types of research use in designing supports for evidence use. Keywords: educational policy, leadership, research utilization, survey research Despite widespread attention to national and state reforms, educational policy making remains a largely local affair. School and district leaders not only interpret and respond to state and federal policies (Hightower, Knapp, Marsh, & McLaughlin, 2002; Meyer, Scott, & Strang, 1987) but also lead the design and implementation of instructional policies and programs (Burch & Spillane, 2005; Datnow & Honig, 2008; Hightower et al., 2002; Rorrer, Skrla, & Scheurich, 2008; Spillane, 1996; Spillane & Thompson, 1997) . Central office leaders adopt or design initiatives to improve teaching and learning, create structures and processes to implement these initiatives at scale, and provide system-wide management, oversight, and leadership (Rorrer et al., 2008) . It is atthe local level, as led by district and school leaders, that educational improvement efforts take root. At the same time, local education leaders face pressure from federal policies to find and use research evidence to inform their decision making. The Every Student Succeeds Act (Public Law 114-95) calls on leaders to select, adopt, and implement “evidence based” programs and strategies that have demonstrated improved student outcomes or the potential for improved student outcomes. This act follows nearly two decades of federal policy making focused on increasing leaders’ opportunities to access and use highquality research evidence (Haskins & Margolis, 2015; Haskins, Paxson, & Brooks-Gunn, 2009) . Major initiatives funded by the U.S. Department of Education (e.g., What Works Clearinghouse) likewise aim to support leaders’ use of research when making decisions about programs and practices to adopt or design. At present, there is limited information about how often and where local education leaders access research and the purposes for which they use it. Areview of studies of school and district leaders’research use indicate that research is difficult for leaders to access, it is rarely used, and it is only sometimes consulted for decision making about program adoption (Coburn, Honig, & Stein, 2009) . Even within longer-term research-practice partnerships—in which researchers work closely with educators to investigate and search for solutions to persistent educational problems—the level of Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4

FAQs

How frequently do school and district leaders report using research, and what attitudes do they have?

They report frequent research use and generally positive attitudes toward research.

Where do leaders primarily access research evidence?

Leaders primarily access research through professional networks.

Which factors are associated with higher levels of research use?

Higher research use is linked to certain leadership roles, pursuing/holding advanced degrees, and having a strong organizational culture of evidence use.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cipher