In the half century since James Coleman and his colleagues first documented racial gaps in student achievement, education researchers have done little to help close those gaps…We have debated endlessly and fruitlessly in our seminar rooms and academic journals about the effects of poverty, neighborhoods, and schools on these disparities. Meanwhile, the labor market metes out increasingly harsh punishments to each new cohort of students to emerge from our schools unprepared.

That’s pretty stern stuff, but that’s how Harvard economist Tom Kane opens his article calling for a new approach to education research in the latest issue of Education Next.

In this episode of the EdNext podcast, Tom Kane talks with Marty West about why education research is not having an impact on education policy and what it would take for decisions made by policymakers at the state and local levels to be influenced by research.

Tom’s article, “Connecting to Practice: Putting education research to work,” was published this week.

The EdNext Podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher and here every Wednesday.

—Education Next