About

In February 2017, the William T. Grant Foundation convened a group of education leaders to explore an important issue: how to expand and diversify stakeholder participation in the production and use of research evidence in education policy and practice. Inspired by a chapter, Democratizing Evidence in Education, co-written by Vivian Tseng, Steve Fleischman, and Esther Quintero, the meeting generated a number of important observations:

• While efforts to improve the production and use of research evidence in education have made great strides over the past 15 years, the potential for evidence to inform educational improvement is still largely untapped. 

• The ongoing development of an education system that values equity and excellence depends on the active and informed participation of diverse stakeholders.  

• Aligning evidence production and use efforts with democratic principles will enable evidence-informed decision making be more inclusive and more responsive to the challenges facing students, educators, families, and communities.

From the meeting, volunteer-led working groups were formed to develop the vision, guiding principles, and strategies contained on this website. In addition, the Funders Learning Group for Using Evidence for Change provided support to build this site and to curate funder resources for it.  

In keeping with the evolving way in which these ideas have been developed, stakeholders are invited to become a signatory  and share their own ideas with one another about democratizing evidence in education.