Report Card on Education, 1983-84 to 2004-05

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.or g

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