Ask any successful technology entrepreneur or laboratory scientist about his or her process and at least one of the answers will be that the researcher is not limited by what is. Most researchers are ultimately looking for something more than just an incremental improvement. They are interested in results not percentages . It is clear that the old ways of approaching social issues are not working. The rap of change.
Research is perhaps the easiest of the three to understand and the hardest to do.
Said simply, we must spend more money and more time on figuring out what really works. What happens all too often is the fads of change take over. The problems facing American communities are not academic problems, they are human problems. The Pew Partnership is working with 19 communities and a national research team to discover what is working, and what is not, on America's toughest issues. Let me give you an example of the kind of research that is needed.