CEHD and University Libraries are building a tool to improve navigating education research

Sarah Holland — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 19:32:40 +0000

CEHD and University Libraries are building a tool to improve navigating education research Sarah Holland Thu, 08/28/2025 - 15:32

The widening gap between research and practice represents exactly the type of grand challenge that �鶹��Ƶ's Grand Challenge Initiative seeks to tackle through cross-disciplinary innovation.

Faculty across the College of Education and Human Development, working with University Libraries, are exploring AI-powered ways to bridge that gap—exemplifying the Initiative's dual focus on advancing 21st-century education for all and driving responsible digital innovation in service of the public good.

Seth Hunter. Photo provided.

Seth Hunter, associate professor of education leadership and policy and senior fellow of EdPolicyForward: George �鶹��Ƶ’s Center for Education Policy, collaborated with the University Libraries to receive seed funding from EBSCO—a library database service—to develop a tool that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to help practitioners in education find and interpret evidence-based practices and research that can be implemented to improve student outcomes.

Before coming to George �鶹��Ƶ, Hunter worked in state and local education agencies, where “research in educational studies in K-12 was available, but not being used to support important decisions at district and state levels. The disconnect between research and practice and policymaking was fascinating to me.”

This wasn't exclusive to education agencies; the same patterns appeared in local school districts as well. Beth Davis, PhD Education ’23, and postdoctoral fellow in EdPolicyForward, noted that she saw this gap in action.

“When I worked at a high school in Maryland, there were so many challenges that I knew there were better ways to do things than what we were doing, but I also didn’t feel like we had the time to figure out what those things might be,” she said.

Beth Davis. Photo provided.

As Davis pointed out, an efficient and effective search takes time, even for the most seasoned researcher. Combing through search results, sorting books from articles from reviews, tracking new keywords and phrases: It can be a challenging, and time-consuming, effort just to find the articles you need. And that doesn’t account for the time required to read and interpret the content once found.

As AI grew in its capabilities, Hunter saw an opportunity to leverage this new technology to perhaps bridge that research/practice gap.

“We’re looking at bespoke AI tools that are out there already to help practitioners find and translate research in ways that would enable school improvement for student benefit while meeting federal and state policy guidelines,” explained Hunter.

Early results show promise. In a pilot endeavor within the Education Leadership MEd program, the students asked to search for articles using AI-powered tools found the process much easier than traditional search methods, and they reported that the AI helped them understand the research through its ability to succinctly summarize the contents in more accessible language.

“It could streamline the process of making evidence-based practices and research easier to find and therefore implement,” said Davis.

Christopher Lowder. Photo provided.

As the primary provider for access to scholarly research, University Libraries is central to this project. Hunter recruited the expertise of Christopher Lowder, education subject librarian, to assist them in developing the tool.

“Having computers go through information quickly is not new,” said Lowder, “but now we’re thinking about how this new generation of AI can make the research content understandable to the average user. It’s almost like translation, or decoding.” For example: Can the AI alert the user if the study meets the standards set forth by federal and state Departments of Education?

For Hunter, bringing the public back to university libraries is a secondary benefit of the project. “I think university library systems are such a huge value-add for the public good,” said Hunter. “Libraries set universities apart from many other knowledge organizations.”

Hunter also notes that a tool like this supports fiscal responsibility. With evidence-based practices, leadership can be confident they are putting resources behind an initiative that has been empirically tested and verified. "We want to enable better decision-making so leaders can be better stewards of public resources that can improve students’ lives.”

As one of the top 20 universities for innovation in the United States and a leader in AI innovation in Virginia, George �鶹��Ƶ is working to advance research for the campus community and beyond. Multidisciplinary teams like this are, for Hunter, a core tenet of this, and necessary to the development of bold solutions to the grand challenges of our generation.

“We have these permeable boundaries within units and across colleges,” said Hunter. “I mean, this team illustrates that: We have CEHD faculty, we have a librarian, we’ll be working with computer scientists...we are encouraged to engage in transdisciplinary research and that feeds innovation.”

Lowder agreed. “George �鶹��Ƶ encourages us to try things in new and different ways and to include different voices within the conversation, and our leadership genuinely believes that our work can do good not just for the university but also for the wider community. I believe it’s a public good for information to be findable, understandable, and accessible.”

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�鶹��Ƶ centers receive gift from Hewlett Foundation to bridge research practice gap in education

Colleen Rich — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:31:56 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ centers receive gift from Hewlett Foundation to bridge research practice gap in education Colleen Rich Fri, 09/22/2023 - 11:31

In This Story

Anne Holton

Two centers at �鶹��Ƶ—EdPolicyForward in the College of Education and Human Development and the Center for Advancing Human Machine Partnership (CAHMP), a transdisciplinary research center—will collaborate on a project that aims to better connect research to practice in education policymaking, and support school divisions in improving student and teacher performance and enhancing the effectiveness and fairness of resource allocation through data-driven decision making.

The collaboration is supported by a generous gift from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation that advances ideas and supports institutions to promote a better world. The collaboration between EdPolicyForward and CAHMP manifests the power and opportunities that transdisciplinary research can bring to �鶹��Ƶ's research and practice community.

Sanmay Das

The Education Program at Hewlett Foundation makes grants to help educators, schools and communities turn schools into places that empower and equip students for a lifetime of learning and to reach their full potential.

The core �鶹��Ƶ project team includes Sanmay Das, professor of computer science and co-director of CAHMP; Anne Holton, professor of public policy and education; Seth B. Hunter, assistant professor of education leadership; David Houston, director of EdPolicyForward and assistant professor of education; and Peng Warweg, assistant director of CAHMP.

Anne Holton

The project will leverage the core team’s expertise in education policy research, artificial intelligence, and advanced data analytics, as well as partnerships with local school divisions, to better connect research to practice, with the goal of helping all students succeed through efficient, effective, and equitable use and distribution of school resources.

Over the next 16 months, the team will deliver a series of policy briefs to communicate relevant research findings to state and local leaders on matters of importance to their decision-making, creating a two-way dialogue between researchers and policymakers, and a dissemination strategy to inform the policymaking decisions of local, state, and national audiences.

The project is also expected to enhance the capacity for data-driven decision-making in school divisions, especially in the use of methods from artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics to support and enhance equity in access to programs that benefit student outcomes and improve student and teacher performance.

EdPolicyForward, the Center for Education Policy, promotes equity and improved educational outcomes for all students, from preschool through college and beyond. The center connects research to policy and practice, develops and advances effective and pragmatic solutions, and drives meaningful public discourse addressing persistent inequalities in U.S. public education.

Founded in 2019, the transdisciplinary CAHMP facilitates research, teaching, and innovation in understanding and leveraging human-machine partnership to solve current and emerging societal problems. CAHMP’s network of researchers work on cross-disciplinary topics, such as responsible AI, learning technology, education policy and analytics, and generative AI for education.

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education policy

Community Engagement

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Strategic Direction

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CEHD and University Libraries are building a tool to improve navigating education research

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�鶹��Ƶ centers receive gift from Hewlett Foundation to bridge research practice gap in education

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