Evidence-Based Practice
VUE Number 6, Winter 2005
Audio Clip 1:
An interview with Meredith Honig and Cynthia Coburn
What's new about the emphasis on evidence-based practice?
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TRANSCRIPT:
CC: In recent years school districts have faced unprecedented demands to use evidence to ground their decision making, as part of the accountability movement and the rise of interest in research-based programs. Historically we've been here before.
One of the things that differs now is this emphasis on data. That's a little bit different. I think there was more of an emphasis, historically, on social science research. Now there's more of an emphasis on data and more of an emphasis of sort of "certified" programs. I see much more this idea that research should be build into programs and then these programs need to be assessed using particular scientific methods. And then people should use those.
Then there's a parallel track that's really interested in data-driven decision making and using data to assess your local needs and make decisions based on that. It's a little bit different focus on what form the research comes in and what constitutes evidence, I think.
MH: Yea, I'd say that one of the major differences between then and now is the fact that using information of all different kinds is tied to stakes. There's a greater push to say, this program is research-based or this program is not. There's a greater push to come up with what is the research that should be used in decision making.
