A great deal of research is being done in pre-k classrooms thanks to the Early Reading First, one of the truly important and successful reforms of the past 10 years. It is changing what high quality pre-k looks like. Much
of the Early Reading First reforms are based on current research as
well as the ground breaking early childhood research that has been done
over the past twenty years. Researchers like Kagan, Pianta, Bredekamp, and others
have created a foundation for effective preschool practice. These are
smart people and they have said some smart things. Thankfully, more and
more, policymakers are turning to these smart folks to help craft
policy. But, research is intended to generate knowledge, not wisdom.

Wisdom
only comes with experience. Often, when research is quoted these days
it is with the intention of changing what a teacher is doing in their
classroom. As in, research says, "You should be doing _X_ in
your classroom." What the teacher is doing may not be bad, but, it is
not what the research says should be done. That is why there's a gap.
Many of the best researchers are not implementing their findings into
real classrooms. Some are, especially, those focused on practice like
Pianta and Bredekamp, but most just provide the knowledge and
reformers, grantees, and other researchers implement this new knowledge
creating a notable disconnect.

I am going to tell you a story. Please forgive me if it is a little long.

Imagine
you are a researcher and you have just made a discovery. Let's say you
discovered how to teach kids to know the color blue by watching 1000
teachers teach the color blue. These teachers all do this in somewhat
different ways, but everyone has discovered a way to teach the color
blue. Some teachers were really great and these are the ones you really
study. You synthesize all of the ways these great teachers teach blue
into a framework. This framework is brilliant, it sheds new light on
teaching the color blue. It works, guaranteed, because you have seen it.

Now,
you call your friend, another researcher and say, "Hey I made this
great discovery. I know exactly how to teach kids the color blue." Then
you describe your framework for teaching kids blue. Well, your
researcher friend has this great idea, she wants to get a grant to
research how  teachers can teach the color blue more effectively. They
may already have been teaching the color blue, but how they taught the
color blue has not been researched to be reliable or valid. Besides,
some teachers didn't teach blue as well as others.

So she
develops a professional development program to teach teachers how to
teach blue. Then she implements it. She tells teachers all about the
definition of blue, the foundational research around blue, and the most
reliable ways to teach blue. The teachers then practice how to teach
blue and go to their classrooms to teach all about it. Some like being
told how to teach blue, some resent being told how to teach blue, some
collect their paycheck either way. Those who already knew how to teach
blue their way, decide to leave. Or, they keep teaching blue their way
but make it look like they are doing what the researcher says. New
teachers are hired that know nothing of teaching blue and they are
thankful for the help. Well, this proves that anyone can teach blue if
you just follow the program.

For some reason though, the blue
framework and method of teaching blue is never as effective as it was
when you first saw how great teachers were teaching blue.

The
question for me is one of discovery. The teachers that were studied had
discovered their way of teaching blue through a process that made them
wise. The second group was made smarter but, because they didn't
discover why that method worked for them in their classroom with their
kids, their was no wisdom gained. The method was handed to them, it was
not discovered.

There is an arc here that does not translate to
real life. Even though you can learn something from watching others and
synthesizing what you see, that doesn't necessarily mean that what you
see and what is happening are necessarily the same thing. And the
reason that you figure out that teaching blue in certain ways works may
not be the actual "reason" for what you see working.