(From Education Week, September 29, 2010)
By DAKARAI I. AARONS
The Obama administration’s education plan lacks a solid research basis for its proposals, a new book says.
The Obama Education Blueprint: Researchers Examine the Evidence is the first major effort from the National Education Policy Center, a university-based research organization in Boulder, Colo., that critiques the work of prominent think tanks. (“Think-Tank Critics Plant a Stake in Policy World,” this issue.)
In the book, scholars take a look at the six research summaries the administration released in May in support of its blueprint–a guiding document it sent to Congress in March to explain its vision of the next iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the main federal law on K-12 education. (“Administration Unveils ESEA Reauthorization Blueprint,” March 16, 2010.)
The researchers found “the overall quality of the summaries is far below what is required for a national policy discussion of critical issues.”
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