Many thousands of research articles are published each year. To a reasonable extent, progress is cumulative. That is, researchers build on the previous work of other researchers. At both the federal and at the state funding levels, there is now considerable realization that our knowledge of education is sufficient to significantly improve education. Thus, more and more funding is being tied to requirements that the funds be used to implement research-based improvements in education.
Education is an incredibly complex field.
Even if educational researchers make marked progress, there is no guarantee that this progress will lead to widespread implementation in the classrooms of the world. Some progress in educational research can be built into the curriculum and instructional materials. For example, we can develop better books. But, there is a huge amount of research that points to the value of students having good teachers and relatively small classes. To draw an example from football, a team is apt to have a quarterback coach.