Is Education Research Not Measuring Up?
Is there a crisis of quality in education research?
With an infinite amount of research on education available, the Economic Policy Institute and the National Education Policy Center are taking on the gargantuan task of separating the dirt from the diamonds. In a forum Sept. 29, a team of education experts will discuss their new book, Think Tank Research Quality: Lessons for Policy Makers, the Media and the Public, in an attempt to distinguish between the junk and the science.
In effect, the two organizations posit that too much shoddy research ends up in the hands of policy makers and the media. Are they right? Or are they part of the problem? Is there an area of education research -- charters, teacher evaluation and teacher pay, among others -- that isn't sufficiently rigorous?
-- Eliza Krigman and Fawn Johnson, NationalJournal.com
RESPONDED ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 8:29 AM
Beware of Wolves Wearing Wool
Rick is right, overall. But he neglects to emphasize an integrally related problem, which is that essentially all would-be ARBITERS of research and research quality, including the two outfits that are bringing out this new book, are nobody's idea of impartial or unbiased. They have a long history of doing --and promoting--research that advances their favored policy agendas (in this case, policies favored mostly by labor and the left) and of trashing research, however credible, that tends to validate or advance other policy directions.
RESPONDED ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 7:53 AM
Breaking Ed School Monopoly Is A Plus
There’s long been a dearth of significant, high-quality research in education. But there’s no new “crisis”. Indeed, matters are improving. The ability of think tanks and others to bypass conventional education journals and forums is only problematic if they are providing meaningful and unbiased