Evidence Based Education Policy and Practice: A Conversation (Francis Schrag)
This fictitious exchange between two passionate educators over making educational policy and influencing classroom practice through careful scrutiny of evidence–such as has occurred in medicine and the natural sciences–as opposed to relying on professional judgment anchored in expertise gathered in schools brings out a fundamental difference among educators and the public that has marked public debate over the past three decades. The center of gravity in making educational policy in the U.S. has shifted from counting resources that go into schooling and relying on professional judgment to counting outcomes students derive from their years in schools and what the numbers say.
That shift can be dated from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 but gained sufficient traction after the Nation at Risk report (1983) to dominate debate over innovation, policy, and practice. Although this is one of the longest guest posts I have published, I found it useful (and hope that viewers will as well) in making sense of a central conflict that exist today within and among school reformers, researchers, teachers, policymakers and parents.
Francis Schrag is professor emeritus in the philosophy of education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This article appeared inTeachers College Record, March 14, 2014.
A dialogue between a proponent and opponent of Evidence Based Education Policy. Each position is stated forcefully and each reader must decide who has the best of the argument.
Danielle, a professor of educational psychology and Leo, a school board member and former elementary school teacher and principal, visit a middle-school