AERA Erasing Line Between Scholarship and Partisanship
by Frederick M. Hess • Mar 7, 2012 at 10:03 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareThe American Educational Research Association (of which I am a member) modestly labels itself "the nation's leading scientific and scholarly association...devoted to advancing knowledge about education." Readers may assume that AERA does its best to avoid gratuitous partisan political fights.
Ha!! Hah-hah! Silly readers. Indeed, it often seems that ed research is an excuse for AERA's leaders to dress up partisan political leanings in something more impressive than fevered ideology. That said, I don't mind the partisanship and ideology so much as I mind the hypocrisy, misuse of research, and attempt to hijack scholarly institutions.
What's up? I recently opened the most recent "AERA News Highlights" to see tedious updates on NCES, AERA's new logo, and the federal budget--all topped by enthusiastic announcements that AERA had
