What does the research say?

The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has released the first stage of a new online tool designed to help policymakers grappling with the question, What does the research say? The initial launch of the ECS Research Studies Database includes 12 studies on what’s needed to improve the education of students in high schools.

Soon, more studies will be added in other areas: teaching quality, postsecondary completion, restructuring schools and more. Users can search for studies by issue, author, organization, publisher and by recency.

For each study, the online tool features concise, bulleted lists of findings and results, policy implications and recommendations.

All studies included have been carefully screened and meet the following criteria: (1) High-impact recommendations and policy implications; (2) Implications for state-level policy; (3) Interventions hold potential for replication; (4) Published by highly selective research organization; and (5)Peer-reviewed/juried — although exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Visitors will be able to go directly to the findings and recommendations of vetted studies and get the ECS perspective on why a particular study is a valuable contribution to knowledge in the policy area.

You can visit the site by clicking, here.