Follow the Science to School: Evidence-based Practices for Elementary Education

“Follow the science.” How often have you picked up an education book to read how, according to the authors, the system is broken, failing, and flailing―but their ideas for fixing it will bring about a miraculous transformation? That’s not the approach of this volume. Sure, the editors believe that our system of education could achieve significantly better results. But they also recognize that schools have gotten better over time. One explanation is the progress schools have made in “following the science”. Especially in early reading and math instruction, scholars know more now about what works than we did in the past, and more schools are putting that knowledge into practice. Now, in the wake of a horrific pandemic, even the best elementary schools are struggling to help their students get their momentum back again. In this book, the editors share high-quality syntheses of evidence and insights from leading educators, academics, and other experts. And they communicate those findings in user-friendly language, with an understanding of the real-world complexities of schools and classrooms.

Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, executive editor of Education Next, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education Commission of the States. An award-winning writer, he is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma, editor of Education for Upward Mobility, and co-editor of How to Educate an American. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Slate, and appears frequently on television and radio. Petrilli helped to create the US Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement and the Policy Innovators in Education Network. He serves on the advisory boards of the Association of American Educators, MDRC, and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.

Kathleen Carroll is longtime education journalist and manuscript editor at Education Next. Her longform, data-driven reporting has won top prizes from the Education Writers Association, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Investigative Reporters and Editors, among others. She has more than two decades of experience in strategic storytelling and analysis, including as publications editor at TNTP. She frequently partners with leading foundations, researchers, and practitioners to explain the ideas and innovations that advance opportunity for students across the economic spectrum. kathcarroll.com

Barbara Davidson is a former classroom teacher of learning-disabled students who has worked for the past 35 years to advance three levers for producing K–12 academic improvements: the role that high-quality curriculum plays in supporting teacher excellence, the importance of building students’ background knowledge of the world as a strategy for reading success, and the octane that specific evidence-based instructional practices can provide for learning. Barbara runs StandardsWork (www.standardswork.org), a national nonprofit that promotes research on the “curriculum effect” and elevates both educator and family voices in support of a curriculum renaissance. She also serves as Executive Director of the Knowledge Matters Campaign (www.knowledgematterscampaign.org) which, among other things, sponsors the Knowledge Matters School Tour designed to “find the good and praise” districts that are utilizing these three levers to change outcomes for students.