Whose job is it to link research with practice?

I am a graduate student in a social science department that emphasizes the importance of basic research, I admire my professors' work, and I would aspire to become a professor one day. That said, the activist in me is constantly frustrated with the lack of impact that most researchers, especially education researchers, have on student achievement.

To make myself feel better about what I do, I have been going to a few academic job talks at a school of education. The presenters are trained in education research, a supposedly interdisciplinary field of study, surely these people would know more about linking research with practice. On the contrary, the talks have only made me more frustrated with the problem of NOT using research to improve practice. In a nutshell, the job talks provide a space for candidates for an assistant professor position to impress distinguished professors and graduate students with their ability to conduct quantitative education research using dazzling (if not dizzying) statistical modeling techniques and Greek letters. Though some of the candidates have had some K-12 teaching experience, I don't recall that any of them had shared any kind of concrete policy recommendations or recommendations for practitioners to improve their classroom strategies (even when asked about them after their presentation.) Okay, I get it, academics don't have to make policy recommendations, many, if not most, academics conduct research purely for the sake of basic scientific knowledge. But the problem is, most of these researchers are using tax dollars to conduct research, don't they sort of owe it to the taxpayers to produce some impact? It has become more and more apparent to me that researchers and practitioners don't particularly care to initiate meaningful discussion between the groups to figure out a way to really use research to improve education. Researcher are too far removed from the classroom and teachers don't have time to translate statistics and Greek letters into changes in their lesson plans. Should schools of education be doing more to link the two worlds? Should school districts be doing more to make the connection between research reports and their schools' performance?