Think Twice Reviews Spark Debate

June 15, 2006                                                                        

For Immediate Release        

Contact: Teri Battaglieri

Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice

(517) 203-2940

East Lansing, Mich.-Two Think Twice reviews of Fordham Foundation charter school reports have sparked further debate over the quality of think tank research.

At the center of the debate are Fordham Foundation President Chester E. Finn and University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Ernest R. House.

On May 19, House reviewed Fordham’s report, “Trends in Charter School Authorizing.” He found that the report had several weaknesses, chief among them the failure to connect the report’s data and its conclusions.

Finn defended the quality of the Fordham research in an EducationNews.org opinion piece on May 31. He claimed that House “blatantly” misread the report.

In a written rebuttal released today by Think Twice, House says that Finn’s defense does nothing to address the report’s weaknesses nor does it help establish a connection between the report’s data and its conclusions.

“It is somewhat unusual when the sponsor of a study rather than the researcher who conducted the study responds to a critique,” House writes. “It raises questions about how much influence the sponsor exercised over the findings of the study, which was already an issue with this report.”

According to Teri Battaglieri, director of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice which funds the Think Twice project, the exchange between House and Finn is welcome. “There is a need for all reports released by think tanks to be meet high academic standards. Decisions about education policy need to be based on empirically sound research which has undergone a rigorous vetting process. The exchange between Finn and House will enable the public to better understand the report and the issues it addresses.”

Find House’s rebuttal, Finn’s defense and the reports reviewed at: http://greatlakescenter.org/Think_Twice.php

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 Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado and is funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.