By Teri Battaglieri

As president of the purportedly pro-education Basics Project, Nancy Salvato should have done her homework before she dismissed the need for increased scrutiny of think tank research to ensure validity and objectivity.

Rather than providing a thoughtful and independent analysis of a legitimate national concern, Ms. Salvato’s commentary in The Ledger (A Think Tank’s Credibility Tanks, April 23) reflects how the partisanship of modern American politics is endangering the legitimate work of think tanks both of the right and the left.

Ms. Salvato assumes that anybody who does not subscribe to her political beliefs should be regarded as a source of amusement. But her criticisms are merely smears, without substantive information or merit.

The Great Lakes Center for Research and Practice launched the “Think Twice Review Project” this year in the belief that education policy should be based on information supported by facts and science.

Think Twice is one of the nation’s first efforts to serve as a watchdog to review think tank research on public education issues. As Bill Barody Sr., former president of the American Enterprise Institute, famously noted: “The competition of ideas is fundamental to a free society.”

The ability of think tanks to produce independent analysis and advice is increasingly being compromised, however, by the kind of special-interest group propaganda exemplified by Ms. Salvato in The Ledger. Our reviews for the Think Twice project are academic assessments of the merits of the research reviewed.  We welcome substantive criticism of not only our reviews, but of all the research we fund. Ms. Salvato’s failure to do so suggests she knows the work that has been reviewed is not defensible.

For the record, the Great Lakes Center has never made any secret of the fact that we are financially supported by the National Education Association. This financial support does not dictate the mission of the Center nor does it determine the topics of research and projects that we support.  

We are proud our board comprises a “who's who” of state and national education association leaders — they are the same people who have dedicated their careers   to protecting and improving the quality of public education for children. Further, we have never made any secret of our agenda, which is to improve the quality of public education through funding and disseminating high quality, empirically sound academic research on education issues.

All of our research at the Great Lakes Center undergoes a rigorous vetting process before publication, including outside blind peer review by noted academic authorities. Contrary to Ms. Salvato’s assertion, our policy is to publish the findings of the research we fund regardless of whether it supports our stated mission or that of our funding sources. Our researchers’ credentials are impeccable.

Ms. Salvato also takes issue with the list of think tanks that we have chosen to watch this year, claiming partisan bias. Again, she failed to do her homework.

They were chosen for a specific reason — they are among the Midwest’s and nation’s leading think tanks which have an impact on the public's perception of education. Our children are too important to have decisions made about their futures based on anything other than empirically sound research.

We hope The Ledger’s readers will visit our website at www.greatlakescenter.org to learn more about the mission, research and projects of the Great Lakes Center. 

If the self-proclaimed mission of Ms. Salvato and The Basics Project is “to promote the education of the American public,” she ought to understand that smears are no substitute for substantive comments.