BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

This article argues that the social science research community and sch ool administrators and teachers have different agendas and respond to different pressures in their educational endeavors. One result of thes e different agendas is a serious communication gap between researchers and practitioners. As a consequence, educators frequently fail to rel y on social science research to inform policy and practice. A proposed solution is to create formal positions at the stare or local level wh ose occupants, sensitive to both audiences and their work styles, woul d link basic and applied research to educational policy to increase th e utility of research to educators.