Throughout the world, members of the education research community have long decried the lack of attention to research and scholarship that is evident in most education policies promulgated by state, provincial, and national legislatures. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 (ESEA 2001), which was recently signed into law in the United States, is an interesting case to consider in this regard. Because ESEA 2001 states that education programs and policies should rely on “scientifically based research,” it appears at first glance to offer a welcome counterexample to the longstanding tendency of policy professionals to ignore research when setting education policy
