CEPR Faculty Director Thomas Kane asks why state and local school agencies underinvest in evidence in the following Brookings Institution paper.
In the United States, we entrust state and local leaders to make most consequential decisions affecting schools. It’s ironic, then, that the federal government funds most of the research and evaluation work in education. State and local leaders bear a responsibility to study the consequences of their decisions. We will make much faster progress when they do.
At this very moment, chief academic officers around the country are choosing professional development providers to prepare teachers for the Common Core. Districts are choosing curricula. Why can’t we provide them with better evidence to guide their choices? Or, at the very least, why can’t we compare the 2014-15 gains for those making different choices now, so that we have a clearer view of what worked going into the 2015-16 school year? Otherwise, we will continue reinventing the wheel. School leaders need to get out of the wheel reinvention business.
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