ABSTRACT
The title of this article-as well as of my position at the International Reading Association (Director of Research and Policy)—assumes that there is a relationship between public policy and research on reading comprehension. The relationship is in both directions. Policy infl uences research and research infl uences policy. (Research and policy simultaneously infl uence each other and unidentifi ed underlying variables infl uence both but these will not be addressed in this chapter.) This chapter will focus fi rst on the infl uence of policy on research, then the reverse. Then it will examine the implications of the current policy-research situation, the position taken by the International Reading Association, and what we can expect in the future.
