The gap between attained knowledge and its application is nothing new, of course, and it certainly is not restricted to the field of education. We have all seen educational theories come and go, most of them buttressed only by anecdotal evidence or someone's fond hope. Unfortunately, today's students are performing so badly in national and international studies that the argument is rapidly unraveling. But there is a lot of money tied up in maintaining the status quo, even if its results are poor. Textbooks are a major source of income for the educators who write them, and who, incidentally, teach the education majors in college to use them.
Intellectual inertia is reinforced by the financial rewards of doing nothing.
In one area there is solid evidence from the labs of those who explore the way the brain operates that certain teaching techniques are badly off base and are actually doing harm to the hapless students upon whom they are inflicted. This is the area of reading. The argument over phonics first versus look-say has been raging for years, generating enough heat to threaten global warming. But the evidence is available right now to settle the question. Maybe even save the planet.