Good and bad news about education research
Monday, March 10, 2008Written by: Captain Haddock
Let me add one more salvo to the ongoing discussion about education research and bias. The thoughtful responses to my original post, whether they swing left or swing right, suggest (to borrow from the X-Files) that the truth is out there.
The argument — that with enough exhaustive, high-quality research, we can ultimately determine the validity of policy research — is accurate, but academic. The problem is that research has a life beyond the peer-reviewed back-and-forth of academic journals and websites. Most consumers of research findings — policymakers, parents, reporters, me — don’t have the time to conduct their own peer-reviewed studies of recent research. Even within the field, few educators truly have the ability or inclination to thoroughly examine the claims of each study out there, and so must rely largely on the conclusions of others.
The result is that most of us trust the findings of those whom we trust. If we’re teachers, we probably trust the findings of the AFT. If we’re free-marketeers, our first stop is probably Jay Greene or the Cato Institute. It’s one of those peculiarities of the field — unlike, say, that of medicine, in which research findings are less likely to be attached to ideology. Education is simply too complex and interesting to yield so easily to the scientific method.
The bad news? We actually know far less about the effectiveness of various ed reform approaches than we think we know. The good news? Lots of jobs for education wonks.
