ABSTRACT
Legislators, policymakers, and funders of programs and services in health care, social service, and, most recently, education have employed the terms evidence-based practice and scientifically based research in determining which programs and practices to fund. In the United States, federal funding of literacy education and research has been linked to increasingly empirical definitions of scientifically based literacy research. The legislated federal definition of scientifically based reading research is found in the Reading Excellence Act of 2000. This chapter examines what scientifically based research has meant in a variety of contexts before focusing more specifically on what federal definitions of scientifically based literacy research mean and are likely to mean for adult literacy education and research. Responses of several professional organizations to calls for scientifically based research are considered, as are scholarly analyses of the roles research can and cannot effectively play in informing policy decisions.
