Advances in Evidence-Based Education: A Roadmap to Evidence-Based Education (review)

Since No Child Left Behind (2002) and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2005) emphasized the opportunities for all students to receive evidence-based interventions, there has been enormous pressure on school leaders and educators to provide evidence-based education (Walker, 2004). However, there have been continuous issues around evidence-based education, including disagreements among researchers in what constitutes evidence (Drake, Latimer, Leff, McHugo, & Burns, 2004) and the gap between research and practice (Ringeisen, Henderson, Hoagwood, 2003). It is a challenging topic and may continue to be a challenge in education for a long time to come, as seen in evidence-based medicine, which has existed for several decades yet still remains a hot topic for medical clinicians (Sackett, Rosenberg, Gray, Haynes, & Richardson, 1996).

This book tackled this challenging topic, advances in evidence-based education, by collecting various discussion articles published in peer-reviewed journals and chapters of books. Though they are difficult reading (the book is by no means a simple "how-to" book), these articles and chapters provide the readers with the "big picture" (i.e., described as a "roadmap" by the authors) and an understanding of issues and discussions for this important topic. Additionally, examples of successful implementation of evidence-based education are included. The editors' clear vision toward this topic and sophistication in the selection and organization of the articles and the chapters brings the reader the excitement and intellectual challenge of learning new material.

The majority of the selected chapters and articles discuss cultural and organizational level efforts toward advances in evidence-based education, as opposed to efforts at the individual level. This reflects the editors' view of this topic as cultural practice, which can be defined as the interlocking behavior of two or more participants that produces a behavioral outcome (Glenn, 1988). The view is consistent with the magnitude of the topic because the practice of evidence-based education relates to a broad range of populations. Practitioners use the most current evidence, which researchers continuously produce, in interventions that are demanded in everyday practice in education. In this process, legislators, the school administrators, and the public put pressure on practitioners, and university deans and grant agencies put pressure on researchers. In other words, each party should interconnect and influence each other in order to produce the outcome of evidence-based practice. The editors provide the readers with a clear guide in this dynamic, interconnecting process by proposing a model or "roadmap" that puts all of the key components in place (Detrich, Keyworth, & States, 2007).

The "roadmap" consists of four elements: 1) efficacy, 2), effectiveness, 3) implementation, and 4) monitoring, and the rest of the articles and chapters are organized in one of these elements. The first section, efficacy, begins with the article that addresses the critical discussion related to what is considered to be an evidence-based intervention and what is not (Drake, et al., 2004). The current consensus of clear evidence appears to be supported by randomized controlled trials or group experimental design, though choosing two articles that advocate single-case designs (Biglan, Ary, & Wagenaar, 2000, Horner, Carr, Halle, McGee, Odom, & Wolery, 2005) reveals that the editors clearly favor considering single case research designs as a major source of evidence. The preference of single case designs makes sense due to the number of limitations of the randomized controlled trials (e.g., high cost, not a good vehicle for identifying principles, may obscure important relationships that are unique to a subset of subjects) and unique characteristics of single case designs (e.g., individual participant as a unit of analysis, repeated measurement of a process, manipulation of an independent variable), as seen in the discussion of these articles. However, the discussions between group designs and single case designs are likely to continue, considering the fact that single case designs are still associated with...