On the 9th Day of Christmas CER Gave to Me... - The Center for Education Reform

On the 9th Day of Christmas CER Gave to Me…

9 Data Dancing!

(8th) Charter Schools Leading
(7th) Opportunity Scholars Expanding
(6th) Parent Power Growing
(5th) State Policy Changing
(4th) Reformie Ladies Lunching
(3rd) A Global Hub for Technology
(2nd) Model Legislation
And a Nominee for Opportunity!

The 9th in our 12-ish days of Christmas series, intended to bring gifts to education reformers everywhere!

“Anyone can make data dance,” it’s been said.

That’s a reference often heard in research debates about whether or not someone’s findings are accurate, and usually to suggest that one person’s research is just as valid (or invalid) as another’s.

And yes, anyone can manipulate data, but not everyone uses the gold standard method of evaluations to help guide policy and decision-making. The gold standard is the term of art, for the best science to gauge whether something is working or not. It uses real subjects, with similar characteristics, and tracks their progress to determine if the one major variable that distinguishes them might be responsible for their relative success or failure.

In the #edreform world that variable is most often a choice of schools. With literally thousands of comments, tweets, articles & the like constantly disparaging school choice results, CER brought together a distinguished panel of academicians and thought leaders this past November to create the first ever repository of “gold standard” guidelines for the education policy community. The forum was EdReform: Revived, and the findings from an ideologically diverse group conclusively demonstrate that not only does choice work for parents, its success from chartering to vouchers is clear and impactful from the student’s time in a choice school through college.

Giving new meaning to data dancing, these nine arbiters of data have demonstrated beyond a doubt that meaningful choice programs result in meaningful progress for kids. So start singing that tune….

Dr. Susan Dynarski
Professor of Education, Public Policy & Economics, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, School of Education & Dept. of Economics

Mr. Max Eden
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

Dr. Jay Greene
Distinguished Professor & Head of the Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas

Dr. Michael Horn
Co-Founder & Distinguished Fellow, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation

Dr. Ted Kolderie
Co-Founder & Senior Fellow, Education Evolving

Mr. Matthew Ladner
Senior Advisor, Policy & Research, The Foundation for Excellence in Education