NICHCY Research

Launched February 20, 2004
Updated December 3, 2007
Approx. 5 pages when printed

There's an ever-increasing emphasis on using research to make decisions regarding children with disabilities in all their aspects--best practices for educating them, raising them, training their teachers, and setting systems in place that run smoothly and accomplish results. But, unlike roses, research is not necessarily research is not always research, just because it claims to be research. There's high-quality, well-designed, noteworthy research, and then...there's research that may have serious flaws in its design, conclusions, or generalizability to other students or settings. How do you tell the difference?

These Research Connections are intended to help you do just that. These resources lay down the basics--what makes for good research, what good researchers consider when they do their work, and what we, as consumers and decision makers, need to keep in mind when we review research and base decisions upon it. You can use this page in combination with the other offerings in our ever-growing collection of pages designed to make sense of research. At the moment, we offer these basic introductions:

Research 101 (you're here!)
(What makes for good research?)

Research 102: Adding Up the Evidence
(How do you combine the findings of multiple research studies?)

Making Sense of Statistics in Research
(Don't let stats throw you.)

Weighing Info for Its Worth
(Is this research well done?)

Special Education Research: Where to Start?
(How to begin finding and applying research.)

What Works: Can We Say?
(Where can I find information on evidence-based practices?)

Research-Based Resources on Specific Disabilities
(A starting place for research-based information on disabilities.)

Types of Research and Their Roles in Improvement of Practice.
from the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD).
http://www.ncld.org/content/view/609/480/

Phases of Research: Steps in Gathering and Evaluating Evidence.
from the Cyberlab for Psychological Research.
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/phases.html

Research Methods: From Question to Conclusion.
From Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/methods/index.html

Looking for Good Ideas: A Guide for Interpreting Research Reports.
From Schwab Learning.
www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=757&g=2

Ingredients of Good Research.
From Schwab Learning.
www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=314&g=2

Assessing the Methodological Quality of Published Papers.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/315/7103/305

Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals.
From the Cornell University Library.
www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill20.html

The Research Paper.
From Trinity University.
http://www.trinity.edu/departments/soc_anthro/research_papers.htm

APA Format.
From Cyberlab for Psychological Research.
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/apa.html

Communicating educational research data to general, nonresearcher audiences.
From the journal Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 6(7).
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=7

Effective Reporting (Resources in Institutional Research, Number 12).
From the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), ED 443 315.
http://searcheric.org/ericdc/ED443315.htm

What Does Research Mean to You? Making Educational Technology Research Relevant to Educators.
From the International Society for Technology in Education.
http://caret.iste.org/caretadmin/resources_documents/30%5F8%2Epdf

Using Research and Reason in Education: How Teachers Can Use Scientifically Based Research to Make Curricular & Instructional Decisions.
From the National Partnership for Reading.
www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/Stanovich_Color.pdf

This information is copyright free.
Readers are encouraged to copy and share it, but please credit the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY).

NICHCY Connections pages are published in response to questions from individuals and organizations that contact us. We encourage you to share your ideas and feedback with us!

Project Director: Suzanne Ripley
Editor: Lisa Küpper, Director of Publications, NICHCY
Authors: Dr. Barbara Smith & Kyrie Dragoo

NICHCY thanks our Project Officer, Dr. Judy Shanley, at the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education.

Publication of this Web resource page is made possible through Cooperative Agreement #H326N030003 between the Academy for Educational Development and the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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