Abstract
With great excitement, we have assembled a team of educational evaluation and policy scholars to lead the field’s top journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA). Our aim is to continue the impressive efforts of the prior editorial team while extending the journal’s strengths in several key areas. Our team brings to this work a wide range of experience and expertise, including a variety of methodological and substantive skills, varying theoretical orientations, and a diverse set of lived experiences. We believe that this moment in education research is a crucial one, and we aspire to further improve the rigor and relevance of the educational evaluation and policy research that appears in the pages of EEPA.
The prior editorial team made important substantive and procedural advances during the last 5 years. Our team hopes to advance their good work in several ways. Specifically, we aim to further deepen the journal’s attention to issues of educational inequality and contribute to building evidence on policies and programs specifically designed to close long-standing opportunity and outcome gaps. Second, we hope to expand the journal’s methodological diversity by encouraging submissions of rigorous studies of the educational impacts of policies and programs and studies that open up the “black box” of cause and effect and policy adoption. We want to publish studies that address “what works,” but we also need to answer questions of how, where, under what conditions, and for whom? In this vein, we strongly encourage (a) implementation studies, (b) studies of causal mediation and moderation, (c) cost and cost-effectiveness studies, and (d) rigorous qualitative and mixed-methods studies that highlight how programs and policies are taken up and adapted in various contexts and how they impact different populations. Finally, we encourage the values of open science, to make research accessible to other scientists and, at the same time, to prioritize translational research that is accessible to policy makers and practitioners and relevant to real-world policy and practice.
A Focus on Diversity and Equity
We intend to advance EEPA as the premier journal for policy-related research on educational equity and diversity. Our approach begins with the journal’s leadership. We have assembled a diverse editorial team, which values equity and closing opportunity gaps more than any other educational outcomes. Our team prioritizes publishing and disseminating the best evidence that will advance research-based programs, policies, and practices that promote educational equity. We have also recruited a racially and ethnically diverse editorial board. Our diverse team of editors-in-chief and associate editors, which is intended to reflect the diversity of the Ameri-can Educational Research Association (AERA) membership—along with the increased representation of people of color in our editorial board—will help support the objective of a greater focus on equity by having a committed group of editors and reviewers who will be sensitive to equity concerns when reviewing manuscripts. Our team represents diversity not only in demographics but also in expertise on issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in the fields of policy analysis and evaluation.
We believe that our inclusive group of editors and editorial board members will also convey a message within AERA that current scholars and the next generation of diverse graduate students are welcomed and valued in educational evaluation and policy research. Ultimately, we hope to pick up where the prior editors left off and to echo the prior team’s 2018 editorial introduction, which highlighted a commitment “to publishing high-quality research on policies directly aimed at improving educational equity along dimensions of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language, sexual orientation, immigration status, gender, gender identity, and other dimensions of marginalization.”
Emphasizing Rigor and Diversifying Scope
The aims and scope of EEPA are currently stated as follows: Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA) publishes manuscripts of theoretical or practical interest to those engaged in educational evaluation or policy analysis, including economic, demographic, financial, and political analyses of education policies, and significant meta-analyses or syntheses that address issues of current concern. The journal seeks high-quality research on how reforms and interventions affect educational outcomes; research on how multiple educational policy and reform initiatives support or conflict with each other; and research that informs pending changes in educational policy at the federal, state, and local levels, demonstrating an effect on early childhood through early adulthood.
In general, EEPA has fulfilled these aims and scope. The journal has excelled at publishing high-quality research on the effects of policy reforms and interventions on educational outcomes. However, relatively few studies received by EEPA have included quantitative, mixed-method, or qualitative approaches to understanding, as stated by the EEPA aims and scopes, “how [italics added] reforms and interventions affect educational outcomes.”
Scholars in the areas of educational evaluation and policy analysis have learned that work without rigor and trustworthiness is without relevance or utility. However, we have also learned that it is not enough to produce rigorous scientific results; bridging the “last mile” between research and practice and relevance can be enhanced by applying more recent statistical, qualitative, and multi-method design ideas that allow researchers to understand how policies and programs affect educational outcomes, under what conditions, and for whom.
As randomized controlled trials and rigorous quasi-experimental studies have been applied more frequently in education, the application of other complementary techniques has recently emerged in the field. We encourage work that sheds light on potential moderators and mediators of treatment effects, as well as on treatment-effect heterogeneity and implementation fidelity or achieved relative intervention strength. Finally, our team is deeply committed to advancing research on the costs, cost-benefit, and cost-effectiveness of policies and interventions. Indeed, as current IES Director Mark Schneider recently noted, “What use is it for us to tell educators which interventions are effective in education without also informing them about the resources required to implement them?” (see https://www.legistorm.com/stormfeed/view_rss/1964488/organization/116328/title/from-the-ies-director-the-value-of-cost-analysis.html).
Enhancing the Translation and Transparency of Research
We believe that our efforts to encourage studies that focus on policy and program implementation, that highlight mechanisms through which programs impact educational outcomes, and that offer rigorous estimates of policy and program costs will improve the relevance of EEPA to policy makers and practitioners.
However, we aspire to implement other concrete methods to advance EEPA as a source of translational research, which yields more meaningful, applicable results that directly benefit education policy and practice. First, we will invite authors to add brief “Educational Impact and Implications” statements to all full-length published articles. These statements, similar in length to a conventional journal abstract section, will express in commonsense language the “take home” message of each article. We strongly encourage researchers to discuss in clear terms the specific policy and practical implications of their work and to emphasize points that directly inform policy and practice.
Second, we will use various online platforms to highlight and announce the relevance and practical importance of the research found in EEPA.
Finally, we highly value the movement toward open science and aim to make research published in EEPA accessible to others. We encourage authors to follow AERA’s data sharing and archiving policy and to deposit data (or the equivalent) and other study materials within the openICPSR repository. Following these practices, we believe that the transparency of the research and the evidence that supports important findings will be significantly enhanced and that work will add to building cumulative knowledge for the future.
Summary
As editors of EEPA, we are confident that we can continue to strengthen, deepen, and diversify this top journal in its field. We further understand that our success depends on receiving excellent manuscripts and providing a timely and rigorous peer-review process. We feel fortunate to be supported by our excellent Editorial Board and thoughtful reviewers, and we look forward to working with the hundreds of talented submitting authors in the years ahead.