Education Week - January 15, 2020 - 15

How I Curate My News
And Research Diet

How a researcher stays current on education policy-and everything else
By Deven E. Carlson
CARLSON is the associate director for
education at The University of Oklahoma's
National Institute of Risk and Resilience. He is
also an associate professor at the university.

s an academic who
primarily focuses on
education policy, I'm
mainly concerned
with keeping up to
date on research in
that realm. Today's
fast-paced environment makes it challenging to stay on top of all the latest developments in the field. Over time, I've devised a
number of strategies to help make sure that
relevant research papers, think tank reports,
and Capitol Hill hearings cross my radar.
Keeping apprised of developments on these
fronts allows me to usefully contribute to the
research and policy discussions of the day
and ensures that I can provide my students
with up-to-date information.
First, I subscribe to email updates
from two working paper series,
EdWorkingPapers and the National Bureau
of Economic Research. EdWorkingPapers
is a relatively recent addition to the
education research scene, but it has quickly
established itself as a go-to source for the
latest education policy scholarship. NBER
papers are broader in scope-they cover a
wide variety of topics-but the weekly email
blast typically contains at least one or two
papers addressing education.
In addition to staying on top of working
papers, I also make sure to keep up with the
latest peer-reviewed work by subscribing to
several journals, which release the tables
of contents of each new issue via email.

"Today's fast-paced

environment makes
it challenging to
stay on top of all the
latest developments
in the field."

The list of journals one could subscribe
to is almost endless, but the ones I pay
attention to include Educational Evaluation
and Policy Analysis, Education Finance
and Policy, Educational Researcher, and
Economics of Education Review. Even
though I've typically seen a number
of working papers in advance of their
publication, there are always a few articles
that I missed that catch my eye. And while
most of these journals are unfortunately
locked away behind paywalls, a quick
Google Scholar search of the title will
usually return an ungated version
of the paper.
Third, I regularly visit the
websites of the major policy
evaluation firms to see what
they've been working on. Places like
Mathematica, RAND Corporation, MDRC,
Abt Associates, the Urban Institute,
American Institutes for Research, and
others do terrific education policy work.
And because only a portion of these
evaluations ever make it into the peerreviewed literature, I make a point to
routinely check and see if these policy
and research organizations have recently
released any briefs or reports that pique my
interest.
Beyond keeping up with education
research, I'm also on the mailing lists
of the major think tanks that address
education politics, policy, and practice,
including the Fordham Institute, the Center
for American Progress, the American
Enterprise Institute, and the Brookings
Institution. To make sure I'm getting
the full picture, I skim the output of
organizations that straddle the line between
research and advocacy, such as the Center
for Reinventing Public Education or the
National Education Policy Center. I glance

at a couple of those daily email blasts from
Washington, D.C., organizations that give a
run-down of what is happening on the Hill
or in the U.S. Department of Education. I
occasionally take a peek at online edujournalism outlets, like Chalkbeat or the
Hechinger Report.
Most important on this front, though, is
my regular perusal of EdWeek, which is
unparalleled in its coverage of all aspects
of education. It has great policy coverage at
both the state and, especially, federal level.
It regularly features the perspectives of
educators and folks doing the important
on-the-ground work. And the opinion
pieces are routinely well-crafted and
thought-provoking. Of course,
none of this will be news to
anyone reading this piece.
Finally, an overview of my approach to
staying on top of the latest developments
in education wouldn't be complete without
mentioning Twitter, which provides me
with an invaluable connection to the
broader education community. A quick
scroll through my timeline can both alert
me to interesting research and scholarly
discussions and distill reactions to the
political event or policy debate of the day.
Now, there are aspects of Twitter that
promote negativity and incivility, but in
my experience those downsides can be
mostly eliminated by carefully curating
the list of folks you follow and exerting the
willpower to disengage from unproductive
interactions. Overall, I'm consistently
surprised at just how useful Twitter can
be in keeping me up to date on the latest
education developments.
Together, these strategies and resources
allow me to stay current in the classroom
and help ensure that I can contribute to the
research and policy debates of the day. n

Top 7 scholars by newspaper mentions
Newspaper
mentions

Institution

Field

Overall scholar
ranking

Sara Goldrick-Rab

Temple

Sociology

Raj Chetty

Harvard

Economics

Jonathan Zimmerman

U. Penn

History

Marc Lamont Hill

Temple

Sociology

William F. Tate

Washington U.

Sociology

Pedro Noguera

UCLA

Sociology

Robert Kelchen

Seton Hall

Government and Policy

Name
The number of times a scholar
was quoted or mentioned in
U.S. newspapers (per LexisNexis)
is one of the nine categories
included in the RHSU EduScholar Public Influence Rankings. This year, seven scholars
earned the highest number of
points in this category after reaching 30 newspaper
mentions.

SOURCE: EdWeek Research Center analysis of RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, 2020

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Education Week - January 15, 2020

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