A trip to the Reformy Education Research Association? « School Finance 101

A trip to the Reformy Education Research Association? « School Finance 101

A trip to the Reformy Education Research Association?

by schoolfinance101

So, as I head off to AERA in New Orleans, I’ve been pondering what it would be like if there was a special education research conference for reformy types. What would we find at the Reformy Education Research Association, RERA? How would the research be conducted or presented? What kinds of research thinking might we see?
Well, here are a few examples.
Reformy Study #1
First, here’s a table from the widely distributed paper from a team of renowned authors at the Forum on

Dumbest “real” reformy graphs!

by schoolfinance101

So in my previous post I created a set of hypothetical research studies that might be presented at the Reformy Education Research Association annual meeting. In my creation of the hypotheticals I actually tried to stay  pretty close to reality, setting up reasonable tables with information that is actually quite probable.  Now, when we get down to the real reformy stuff that’s out there, it’s a whole lot worse. In fact, had I presented the “real” stuff in my previous post, I’d have been criticized for fabricating examples that are just too stupid to be true. Let’s take a look at some real “reformy” examples here:
1. From Democrats for Education Reform of Indiana
According to the DFER web site post which includes this graph:

True, there are some great, traditional public schools in Indiana and throughout the nation.  We’re also fortunate that a vast majority of our educators excel at their jobs and are dedicated to doing