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[achangeofplans]

So, at some point in my future I want to be doing research.  Sounds like I'm in the right place.  My main interests are in education; homeschooling, charter schools, high-stakes testing, and the unintended consequences of educational policies.  Hey, I'm in the College of Education learning lots of statistics.  So far so good. 

I spent all weekend churning out several pages of analysis of statistics on red/blue states and crime/income/marriage/divorce/drug use.  Last weekend, just for fun, I read half a dozen articles on minimum wage in Indonesia and wrote several pages of lit review.  The weekend before that, and the weekend before that, and the ... well, you get the idea. 

I look at how influential educational researchers are in guiding policy in America and I cry a little inside.  For example, in the state of Florida they passed a class size amendment to their state constitution a few years back.  All of the education people said, hey, look at California, they just spent 5 billion dollars showing us that merely reducing class size doesn't actually accomplish anything (OK, sometimes K-3 it can be effective).  The voters of Florida said, we've got to do this for the kids.  Now the kids are suffering as the quality of their teachers declines and the variety of classes they can take is restricted.  Educational journals come in at the bottom of the impact rating lists.  Policy makers don't seem to care what we have to say, voters don't seem to care what we say, and a large portion of teachers don't seem to care what we have to say.

So, I'm spending more time than I should on research that doesn't help me in this field, and I'm feeling like this field doesn't have the pull to make a difference. 

None of this would really matter, but I have this economics professor that I correspond with occasionally who has done some really cool research in education (that people have paid attention to) and also gets to do research on minimum wage and other issues I find interesting (and still have it count as research he is supposed to be doing) and keeps inviting me to consider economics as a better fit for what I want to do.

Now the self doubt and questioning get serious.

Do I change programs, do I stay here and try to go a little multidisciplinary, do I give up and get a real job? (just kidding about that last one, I really do enjoy what I'm doing, I just have questions about how to do it most efficiently)

[illuminata]

I feel your pain. Right...here.

And you're right about the boneheads who have the real power not bothering to ask anyone who really knows anything about the issue to guide their decisions. This is how things like PL 221 happen.

Anyway, as annoying as this can be, I urge you to stay where you feel you belong- and do the work you have a passion for- whether that is in ed or econ. Academic work is too damn hard to do without a driving force under the chassis.

If you stay in ed, keep writing- a lot. Be a pest at the state house. Pay your dues to your professional org and be sure they are paying a decent lobbyist. Write letters to the editor. In other words, be a citizen- that voice trumps the voice of the researcher, so use it.

[rockprof]

They don't talk to scientists when passing legislation on how evolution should be taught in schools either (at least in some states).

[eriro]

I don't know how it is in your field, but in science there is a perception that people academics who get involved in policy can no longer do good science.  This bias: a) discourages researchers from advocating action based on the best available data, and b) reduces the credibility (at least within the scientific community) of those who do.  This has been a topic of much discussion in several of my grad classes, and people are very split on the issue.  If you are really hoping to do work that makes a difference in society, then it might be that academia is not the right place.  I'm actually applying to law school now for that very reason.

[achangeofplans]

I'm not planning on a career in academia, as much as I like it here, I have some very specific places I want to live (we have a son with some special needs and family that live in two of the places where he can get what he needs, so two cities where we really want to be and a handful of others where we can be, they all have colleges and universities close by, but limiting myself that much and expecting to get a job are not both realistically going to happen, I've made my peace with that part of the equation) and understand that deciding where I get to live is not something I can do as an academic.

I've been heading towards a PhD in education (not the dreaded EdD, the research is what I'm here for), but now am pondering an economics approach to the same questions.  It wouldn't be leaving what I want to do, more of doing it from a different perspective.  (one that seems to get attention)

I think my question might be more of how do I get there from here with the most ability to do something when I get there?  In twenty years I want to be in DC answering questions about schools and what we can do to help them work better.  (Better students produce better schools, better families produce better students, how do we produce better families? That kind of stuff.)  Move over Margeret, I'm on my way :)  (perhaps I'm a little idealistic, maybe I'll get over that with time, maybe I'll change the world)

I think that I can get there from here, but this other path looks more promising.  (thanks Steve Levitt, now economists can study anything they want without people looking at them funny, do you know what happens when an Ed person shows up with pages and pages about red/blue states?)  Do I switch horses midstream?  Do I stay where I am and make it work anyway?  It isn't even like it's broken, I just see another option that is inviting :)

Writing this all down I can see that I've practically made up my mind to make the jump. 

Any advice on a smooth dismount?  I would still be at the same school, and hopefully taking at least two of the same classes, I don't want to leave the professors unhappy with me.  I'm closer to the beginning of the program than the end of the program so hopefully that won't cause too many issues.

[eriro]

Well, I don't really know about your field (other than that we need thoughtful and educated people guiding education policy!), but I did switch degree objectives and advisors within my program.  I just tried to be really honest with my major professor and explain that I realized my true interest lay elsewhere.  My (former) major professor was very understanding and helpful to me.  Hopefully yours will be also.  Continuing to collaborate with your current/going-to-be-former advisor or keeping him/her on your committee might help to ease the transition also.

[philnotfil]

You could always focus :)

(but stay away from that EdD)

[pamplemoose]

This is the primary reason why academics, on occasion, ought to write for popular audiences!
We forget that influence, and not right ideas, guide policy, guide political outcomes.
So if you think you have the right ideas, you need to find a way to become influential.

You can argue with me 'til the cows come home that trying to influence the real world compromises you.  I think like anything, it comes down to making wise choices.  Academics who are more involved with the policy world are not necessarily compromised (thanks to a little thing called judgment), just like academics who confine themselves to the ivory tower do not necessarily produce research that is free of bias (because as "scientific" and rational as we try to train our brains to become, there's not getting around the fact we are still human).

I do agree the price is sinking in your colleagues' esteem, although I have always attributed that to jealousy.

I don't understand why we expect the world to listen to us when we are not talking to them.