It is not enough to simply conduct research and develop high quality teaching materials. High
quality research and curriculum development is only valuable if it is actually used. We have been
involved in several projects aimed at better understanding why research‐based reform has not had as
much impact as might be expected given the expenditures of time and money. In the paper that
follows, we detail some of our findings and offer recommendations based on these findings. Although
the majority of our work has been in the field of Physics, we believe that the ideas discussed here are
also relevant to Engineering and other STEM disciplines.