ABSTRACT
Analysts of the social science contribution to public policy tend to fall into two categories: the idealists and the cynics. The idealists see substantial distinctive value in the ideas and evidence produced by social science research. This chapter examines Charles E. Lindblom's analysis of the supplementary role of social science. It explores the notion of supplementation in a case study of social science research about how children read and its influence over state and local policy toward reading instruction in public elementary schools. For social science research to influence an individual policy maker or practitioner, the process of supplementation activates some well-known features of cognitive processing. In the most common mode of influence, social science supplements preexisting knowledge by reporting on social conditions or circumstances, research results add, subtract, confirm, or repair in a modest way what people understand about the nature of social life.
