2010 Think Twice Reviews
Think Twice is one of the nation's first efforts to serve as a watchdog to review think tank research on public education issues and policies, ensuring that published work meets the quality and standards of university scholarship. As think tank research becomes increasingly important reference sources in public policy debates, media and other critics have called for increased scrutiny to ensure validity and objectivity (click here to see related stories).
The goal of the Think Twice project is to provide 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.
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Recently Released
July 14, 2010 ![]()
Press Release:
Think Twice Review:
Document Reviewed:
The Impact of a Universal Class-Size Reduction Policy: Evidence from Florida's Statewide Mandate

Reports & Reviews for 2010
| Report Reviewed: | The Impact of a Universal Class-Size Reduction Policy: Evidence from Florida's Statewide Mandate |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Program for Education Policy and Governance at the Kennedy School, Harvard University |
This report analyzes statewide achievement data for school districts in Florida and purports to find that Florida's constitutional amendment limiting class size, "had little, if any, effect on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes." |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | July 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Jeremy D. Finn, The University of Buffalo- SUNY |
| Finn finds that the study doesn't actually address the effect of class size reduction on student achievement and has four major flaws which, when taken together, invalidate it as an evaluation of class-size reduction. | |

| Report Reviewed: | Charter School Autonomy: A Half-Broken Promise |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Thomas B. Fordham Institute, with Public Impact |
This report argues that autonomy is a prerequisite for there to be innovative, effective charter schools. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | May 26, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Charisse Gulosino, University of Massachusetts-Boston |
| In her review, Gulosino finds that the report assumes the positive impact of autonomy, but provides no empirical evidence to support this. She indicates that the report is of very little value to anyone concerned with charter schools including policy makers, school leaders, parents and charter supporters. | |

| Report Reviewed: | Has Progress Been made in Raising Achievement for English language Learners |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Center for Education Policy |
This report urges finds that states have generally made progress in raising the achievement of English Language Learners (ELLs) under No Child Left Behind. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | May 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Jeff MacSwan, Arizona State University |
| MacSwan finds that the CEP report has significant weaknesses in its research methods which undermine its findings. Further, he indicates that given the limitations in the data, it is inappropriate to draw conclusions from the data summarized in the report. | |

| Report Reviewed: | Teacher Layoffs: Rethinking "Last-Hired, First-Fired" Policies |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | National Council on Teacher Quality |
This report urges making teacher layoff decisions on the basis of teacher quality and performance as opposed to the seniority system used by most school districts. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | May 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Richard Ingersoll and Lisa Merrill, University of Pennsylvania |
| The reviewers credit the report for being straightforward and reasonable, but point out that the reforms it proposes are neither new nor unique and are very challenging to implement. | |

| Report Reviewed: | They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Cato Institute |
This report contends that the figures most commonly associated with spending on K-12 public education do not include all relevant expenditures, and that the real costs are much higher than reported. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | May 5, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Vaughn Altemus, University of Vermont |
| Altemus concludes that the report's claim that public education is overpriced is much overstated because it counts capital expenditures twice. Altemus indicates when this error is eliminated, the report's main argument collapses rendering it virtually useless for policymaking. | |

| Report Reviewed: | Behind the Curtain: Assessing the Case for National Standards |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Cato Institute |
This report argues that national curriculum standards will have a very limited effect on education reform and concludes that universal school choice (free market model) is the best way to reform education. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | April 21, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | William J. Mathis, University of Colorado, Boulder |
| Mathis applauds the report's useful summary and critique of the research on national standards, but says its conclusion that the free market is the best way to reform education is simply unsupported. Mathis writes that, as logic, this conclusion, "is the equivalent of saying that since elephants can't fly, frogs will." | |

| Report Reviewed: | Fix the City Schools: Moving All Schools to Charter-Like Autonomy |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Reason Foundation |
This report argues for the decentralization of urban school districts and cites increased student achievement in post-Katrina New Orleans as support for city schools moving toward a "portfolio" of schools model. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | April 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Katrina E. Bulkley, Montclair State University |
| In her review, Bulkley points out that the heavy reliance on New Orleans is a significant weakness of the report as there are numerous reasons unrelated to the portfolio approach that can explain some or all of the student gains. Additionally, Bulkley criticizes the report for its reliance on selected, biased examples as opposed to systematic research. | |

| Report Reviewed: | Stuck Schools |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Education Trust |
This report aims at providing a framework for identifying schools that are simultaneously low-performing and low-improving and in most need of school turnaround strategies. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | April 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Jaekyung Lee, University at Buffalo, SUNY |
| Lee's review of this report finds it relies on misleading data and unreliable methodology. Lee indicates that, "the report's methods are so simplistic, arbitrary and poorly fitting to the report's own assumptions that it is more harmful to sound policymaking than helpful." | |

| Report Reviewed: | Graduation Rates for Choice and Public School Students in Milwaukee, 2003-2008 |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | School Choice Wisconsin |
This report argues that Milwaukee students who use vouchers to attend private schools graduate in larger numbers than do students who attend traditional Milwaukee public schools. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | March 31, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Casey D. Cobb, University of Connecticut |
| Cobb's review of this report praises it for its technically sound analysis and results that are descriptively useful. However, Cobb cautions that any real claims about whether the voucher program is actually causing higher graduation rates must depend upon a much stronger research design. | |

| Report Reviewed: | America's Private Public Schools |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Thomas B. Fordham Institute |
This report identifies public schools across the U.S. that enroll very few students from low-income families (private public schools) and argues that the existence of these "exclusive" schools justifies the support of publicly funded vouchers to private schools. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | March 24, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | John T. Yun, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Yun's review concludes that the report's policy arguments are based on tenuous logic, oversimplification and "critical omissions of fact, context and prior research." | |

| Report Reviewed: | The Shaping of the American Mind: The Diverging Influences of the College Degree and Civic Learning on American Beliefs |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Intercollegiate Studies Institute |
This report argues that colleges are failing to provide and adequate education in civic knowledge and is also influencing graduates to become less supportive of American values. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | March 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Gregory J. Marchant, Ball State University |
| Marchant's review of the report finds that it ignores contradictory findings, omits key information, wrongly argues causation and confuses civic knowledge with conservative political values. Marchant warns that the report "may, in fact, be destructive of the very ideals of education the authors ascribe to the Founding Fathers – particularly informed democratic participation." | |

| Report Reviewed: | Connecticut's Charter School Law and Race to the Top |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCan) |
This report argues for lifting the charter school cap and increasing funding for charter schools in Connecticut. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | March 10, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Robert Bifulco, Syracuse University |
| Bifulco's review of this report finds that it ignores relevant research and offers no evidence to support its claim that expanding charters would increase low-income student achievement. | |

| Report Reviewed: | Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | Brookings Institution |
This report calls for a federally led, universal expansion of school choice programs and makes the argument that increased choice is what the majority of parents want in federal education reform. |
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| Think Twice Review Date: | March 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Janelle Scott, University of California at Berkeley |
| Scott's review of this report finds that it lacks the evidence to support the call for an expansion of school choice. Scott identifies three major shortcomings in the report: it relies too heavily on research in progress and research produced by advocacy organizations; it neglects prior research concerning the nature of parental choice; and it fails to acknowledge that unconstrained school choice has segregative effects. | |

| Report Reviewed: | How School Choice Can Create Jobs for South Carolina |
| Publisher/Think Tank: | South Carolina Policy Council Education Foundation |
| This report argues that school choice, in the form of vouchers to attend private schools, would create significant job opportunities in five poor, rural counties in South Carolina. | |
| Think Twice Review Date: | January 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: | Joydeep Roy, Georgetown University |
| Roy's review of the South Carolina report finds that it is built on seriously flawed assumptions and offers little insight into the effects of school vouchers. Roy writes that the report relies more on rhetoric and less on authentic research and concludes that it is significantly biased and of little value to policymakers. | |

Previous Reports & Reviews:
Think Twice Reviews Released In 2009
Think Twice Reviews Released In 2008
Think Twice Reviews Released In 2007
Think Twice Reviews Released In 2006
Previous Weekly Reports:
Current Weekly Report
2009 Think Twice Weekly Reports
2008 Think Twice Weekly Reports
2007 Think Twice Weekly Reports
2006 Think Twice Weekly Reports
Five "Honorees" of Bunkum Awards Announced for their Contributions to Sub-Par Education Research
Two New Think Tank Reviews Published … Elsewhere
Examining the Funding and Activities of Free Market Education Think Tanks
US Think-Tanks: Casualties In The War of Ideas
Far-Right "Think Tanks" (Propaganda Mills) – Who Are Those Guys?
Let The Buyer Beware [ Executive Summary | Full Report ]

