There's more!This year’s Grand Prize goes to Secretary Arne Duncan and his U.S. Department of Education staff for the exceptionally disappointing low quality of their research reviews supporting their plans for the reauthorization of ESEA (aka, the Blueprint). Our esteemed panel of judges solemnly considered whether the federal government was even eligible for such an award. With so many resources at its disposal, the government seems to have an unfair advantage. But the Blueprint research summaries stood out in two ways that we felt needed recognition. First, they almost religiously avoided acknowledging or using the large body of high-quality research that the federal government itself had commissioned and published over the years. Second, they first raised our expectations with repeated assurances that recommended policies would be solidly grounded in research – only to then dash those hopes in research summary after research summary.
Friday, February 4, 2011
2010 Bunkum Awards
And, as a special Friday treat to you data geeks, we share the 2010 Bunkum Awards, with special mention of the federal Department of Education this year:
The fact of the matter is that the political elite do not create policies based on research. The create research that supports their already made policy. It's a pattern repeated and repeated. In economics all indicators point to the fact that we're in a demand deficit depressed economy, but government policy is now in favor of belt tightening and not trying to find ways to spur the economy. So the political elites fuel research that fits their policy, not the facts on the ground. We live in an era where knowledge and fact are shunned.
ReplyDelete