http://www.greatlakescenter.org

 

January 8, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

‘REPORT CARD ON EDUCATION’ GETS FAILING GRADES

 

Contact: Teri Battaglieri (517) 203-2940 (email) greatlakescenter@greatlakescenter.org

                Gene V Glass (480) 965-2692 (email) glass@asu.edu

 

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The widely-touted Report Card on Education, 1983-1984 to 2004-2005 falls far short of valid or useful research according to a Think Twice review of the report done by Gene V Glass, Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University.

 

The Report Card, written by Andrew T. LeFevre and published by The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promotes ALEC’s policy agenda which includes charter schools and vouchers.

 

The Report Card asserts that student achievement has not been improved by increased spending on education, smaller class sizes, or improved teacher salaries. It concludes that improvement will occur when “accountability, choice and competition are injected into our current educational system.”

 

As Glass explains in his review, “LeFevre presents a great deal of data, but the vast majority of these data are not analyzed.” Further, the Report Card “ignores, intentionally or unintentionally, the many studies that flatly contradict its findings and conclusions.” In fact, the Report Card fails to cite any research studies at all. “Particularly for a report with such sweeping, far-reaching recommendations, this oversight is indefensible,” Glass writes.

 

Glass concludes: “In spite of being clad with myriad numbers and statistics, the Report Card on American Education is rhetoric, not research. Legislators may find value in looking up education statistics for their own state and comparing them with other states. But they will find neither credible findings nor any firmly established facts on which to base policy decisions.”

 

Find the complete review by Gene V Glass as well as a link to ALEC’s Report Card on Education at: http://www.greatlakescenter.org

 

About Think Twice

 

The Think Twice project provides the public, policy makers and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected think tank publications. It is a collaboration of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University and the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and is funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.

 

The mission of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice is to identify, develop, support, publish and widely disseminate empirically sound research on education policy and practices designed to improve the quality of public education for all students within the Great Lakes Region. 

Visit the Great Lakes Center website at: http://www.greatlakescenter.org