Earlier this week I complained about Education Week reporter Debra Viadero credulously touting the results a study allegedly showing great for-profit college results despite the fact that (A) the study was paid for by the for-profit colleges, and (B) she hadn’t actually read the study. Viadero responded today as follows:
Over at the Quick and the Ed, Kevin Carey offers a much more searing attack critique, questioning my use of statistics from a study by the Educational Policy Institute,which was formed to support career colleges. Hey, it’s a blog, Kevin! Had I been writing a story, I would’ve had the full report.
Ah. That’s helpful. I think the thing that threw me off was title of Viadero’s blog, which is Inside School Research: Your Guide to World of K-12 Education Research. Clearly, that needs some work. How about Inside Press Releases About School Research? Perhaps Inside Some Stuff That Other Blogs Said About School Research would work? Alternatively, they could go with Inside Things That Someone Once Told Me on the Phone About School Research. The possibilities are endless.
In general, print publications making the transition to the Web are going to have a tough time if in doing so they explicitly discard the bedrock values of thoroughness and analytic rigor that defined them in the first place.
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.
I appreciated reading the criticism of Ms. Viadero’s work, and it’s certainly made me a more critical reader of her blog, but you’re really coming across as a jerk now.
Nicely wrapped up Kevin…