A Decade of Evidence-Based Education

It has been 10 years since No Child Left Behind (NCLB), with its emphasis on scientifically based instruction as a means for improving the educational outcomes of students, was signed into law. In this article, we review the basic tenets of evidence-based practice as they apply to education as well as the progress that has been made in identifying, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based interventions since NCLB. We conclude that the greatest threat to evidence-based education is poor implementation of interventions. If evidence-based interventions are not implemented well, then the expected benefits are not likely to be realized.