A book from the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), known for its Think Tank Review Project, has a new book out hitting the Obama Administration’s Blueprint for ESEA Reauthorization for being, “below what is required for a national policy discussion of critical issues.” Some quick points:
1. The NEPC, while critiquing think tanks, is itself a think tank. Its funding comes from contracts and grants from private citizens, foundations, an NEA-funded organization, and the NEA itself. I don’t mean to indict them by affiliation here, because all non-profits get their money from somewhere*, but it’s no coincidence that the NEPC is parroting the same “Obama education policy is not research-based” line that the NEA has been using for more than a year.
2. The NEPC, while warning policymakers against using think tank research, forgets why think tanks exist in the first place. Example A is the new book release, which you can buy for the low, low price of $35.99 (paperback $19.99).
3. All joking and specifics in this case aside, let’s take a step back and think about how policy gets made. First, policy is made by a bunch of non-experts. No offense to Congress or policymakers in general, but they couldn’t do their jobs without the guidance of experts. “Experts” come in all forms ranging from the most unimpeachable academics toting rigorous experimental research to congressional staff just trying to keep up to the snake-oil-salesmen lobbyists. Depending on your point of view, think tanks fit somewhere on this spectrum. But regardless of your point of view, there is a market for people who can read and interpret the latest research for non-experts.
Research, unfortunately, is pretty murky stuff. Does Teach for America work? What about professional development? Charter schools? There are studies on either side of all of these debates, so the questions become both more technical, as we assess the relative merits of various studies, and more personal, as we weigh the motives of the researchers themselves.
Second, policy gets made in real time. When an oil rig blows up off the Gulf Coast, someone has to be there trying to clean it up right away. They don’t have time to run a carefully controlled experiment to figure out the best way to stop the leak and clean up the gulf. Instead, we get some messy results, quite literally sometimes. In education, the policy is not as immediate but it still must be at the forefront of research. If policymakers want to try some new idea, they use the best research available to create a climate for success. Over time, new research emerges and they tinker with the policy. That’s just the way it has to work.
*I’m not just throwing stones from a glass house here. All of Education Sector’s finances are publicly available.
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Great take, Chad, and my thoughts exactly – I went to the rollout event for the project’s new book this morning, and the panelists seemed to completely disregard the urgency that we deal with when making policy that’s supposed to improve outcomes for kids in school now.
One big problem with confining policy research in general and education policy in particular to academia is its inaccessibility. Journals and books are expensive, and most teachers and parents can’t afford to spend $33.95 on a remarkably slim volume.* Additionally, the language itself in these sources often requires decades of interaction with a research base that most laypersons don’t have.
Research done only by people who by definition went to good schools themselves and are surrounded daily by people who went to good schools is likely to neglect important questions and the urgency with which they must be asked.
* Unless, of course, you were free at 9:30 on a Wednesday morning and in Washington to attend the event, in which case the book was free.
Excellent post, grounded in reality. Thanks.
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