Evidence-based Research and Educational Know-how: Policy and Practice

Abstract

According to the culture of responsibility, the researcher should pay specific consideration to evidence-based methods which are easily evaluated and immediately applicable to effective educational programs. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—that is, the norm that draws attention to the organization and funding of “educational programs and practices which have proven to be efficacious, thanks to a rigorous scientific research”—was introduced ten years ago in the United States; at this time it is possible to offer an account of the subsequent outcomes of that act, in order to understand which directions educational research has taken after the renewed
managements of funding. The case of the United States is a paradigm that might wisely direct the choices about the Italian policy for research.