Jay Greene Should Expect More from Research
Jay Greene, discussing the use of evidence to inform policy, manages to range from the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching project to the evils of communism in a single blog post. Here’s the crux of his argument before it drifts off course:
I am now more aware of the opposite failing — believing that we can resolve all policy disputes and identify the “right way” to educate all children solely by relying on science. Science has its limits. Science cannot adjudicate among the competing values that might attract us to one educational approach over another. Science usually tells us about outcomes for the typical or average student and cannot easily tell us about what is most effective for individual students with diverse needs. Science is slow and uncertain, while policy and practice decisions have to be