Translating science to policy under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001: Lessons from the national evaluation of the 21st-Century Community Learning Centers

Passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 ushered in a new era of accountability for educational institutions and social programs in the United States. Federal funding became tied to demonstrated results on the basis of scientifically based research. In this paper we recount the science-to-policy translation process for one of the first studies considered under this new mantra, namely, the national evaluation of the 21st-Century Community Learning Centers after-school programs. The recount highlights a range of challenges, problems, and debates in the process, and discusses several lessons learned from this example that may be useful for the science-to-policy translation process in general, and for future studies under the NCLB Act specifically.