Bill et al,
Unfortunately there is far more to this than a risk to the ERIC
database. The Institute of Education Science which will replace OERI
will attempt to set new standards for what constitutes scientific
educational research. The board of the institute will be hand-picked
by the administration. The problem with standards does not revolve
so much around a qualitative-quantitative split, but rather whether
randomized control trials (RCT) become the benchmark by which all
educational research is judged to be scientific. There are plenty of
thoughtful folks working within the quantitative tradition who find
this extremely problematical. For example, the article in the
August/Sept, 2002 issue of the *Educational Researcher* by Bob Linn
et al to see an excellent critique of Bush's "No Child left Behind
Act " of 2001.
The argument made by the Bush Administration's folks is that RCT
research is the standard in medical research, so why not in
education, which is rampant with bad research. While there are many
flaws to their argument, two stand out to me as key. One is that
only a minority of medical research (usually clinical drug trials)
actually uses RCT. RCT methodology cannot and is not used for most
medical research, e.g. epidemiological studies, for reasons of both
science and ethics. Two, if you take two phenomena that are largely
confounded in life and use RCTs to unconfound them, then the
generalizability of your findings are essentially zero, which is
quite unscientific by most standards.
The current U.S. administration's agenda actually has relatively
little to do with science...
Cheers,
King
>Apparently the following legislative initiative may put at risk the ERIC
>system and the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. One thing that strikes me
>is the conflation of "scientific rigor" with "large-scale studies". Where
>did the authors of this initiative mis-learn about science?
>
>If you have an answer, please respond (but not to me -- respond to Roderick
>R. Paige, the education secretary -- the survey must be double blind) -- I'm
>looking for a sample of 10,000 with a confidence interval that will prove
>robust. Oh yeah, if you do have an answer, first please ask a stranger to
>flip a coin to decide whether you should respond or not. Then can we satisfy
>the criterion of random sampling.
>
>Perhaps we could interview the authors of this initiative and their teachers
>to investigate the developmental history of this misconception, but that
>would be darned un-sci-en-ti-fic.
>
>bb
>
>>
>> This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>>
>> This article is available online at this address:
>>
>> http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/10/2002102101n.htm
>>
>>
>>
>> Monday, October 21, 2002
>>
>>
>>
>> Congress Passes Bill to Overhaul Federal Education Research
>>
>> By RICHARD MORGAN
>>
>>
>>
>> The Department of Education's Office of Educational Research
> > and Improvement will be replaced by an autonomous Institute of
> > Education Sciences, with the goal of infusing the beleaguered
>> area of federal education research with "scientific rigor,"
>> under legislation passed by Congress last week. President Bush
>> is expected to sign the bill.
>>
>> The legislation, HR 3801, the Education Sciences Reform Act,
>> is the brainchild of Rep. Michael N. Castle, a Delaware
>> Republican and chairman of the Subcommittee on Education
>> Reform of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the
>> Workforce.
>>
>> The new institute is needed, according to Mr. Castle, to end
>> the current practice of following "one education fad after
>> another" and instead to conduct rigorous, large-scale studies
>> to determine the best teaching methods.
>>
>> "Without sound science to back the claims of increased
>> academic achievement, schools are often disappointed," Mr.
>> Castle said, adding, "At a minimum, we must expect scientific
> > rigor."
>>
>> The new institute would be part of the Department of
>> Education, but would function as a separate office under the
>> direction of a 15-member National Board for Education
>> Sciences, whose members would be appointed by the president
>> and confirmed by the Senate. The board would advise and
>> consult with the director of the Institute of Education
>> Sciences in setting the institute's policies and priorities.
>> The director would also be appointed by the president, subject
>> to Senate confirmation.
>>
>> A Knowledge Utilization Office, under the director, would pool
>> research findings and other information, and present them in
>> accessible language to teachers, school administrators, policy
>> makers, government officials, and the public.
>>
>> The Office of Educational Research and Improvement, which was
>> created in 1979 by the same legislation that established the
>> Education Department, coordinates, develops, and disseminates
>> federally supported education research. It sponsors five
>> national institutes, which focus on curriculum and assessment,
>> early-childhood education, policy and management, continuing
>> education, and education for at-risk students. The office also
>> finances a dozen campus-based research-and-development centers
>> and 10 regional laboratories that transform research findings
>> into programs and products.
>>
>> The new legislation calls for re-establishing many of those
>> agencies and functions under 10 regional boards across the
>> nation.
>>
>> Roderick R. Paige, the education secretary, praised the
>> legislation. "One of the major tenets of our education policy
>> is that teaching and learning practices be based on sound
>> scientific research," he said. "Congress shares that
>> understanding with us, and it is clear from this bill that
>> they view the role of research as the cornerstone of
>> educational reform."
>>
>> Officials of the American Educational Research Association
>> were also pleased with the legislation. Gerald E. Sroufe, the
>> association's director of government relations, said that the
>> measure "provides an important degree of political
>> independence for the agency" and "improves prospects for
>> developing a culture of research that has been lacking" in
>> federal studies of education.
>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>>
>> You may visit The Chronicle as follows:
>>
>> http://chronicle.com
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Copyright 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
>
>__________________________________________________
>D O T E A S Y - "Join the web hosting revolution!"
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>-------------------------------------------------------
-- ______________________________ King Beach Learning, Technology and Culture Michigan State University phone: 517-381-8884 fax: 517-381-8885 email: kdbeach@msu.edu
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