Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at ASU
Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at CU-Boulder
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NEW FRIEDMAN REPORT FAILS TO CORRECT FLAWS
Friedman Foundation's "ABCs of School Choice" repeats mistakes from six months ago
Contact: Christopher Lubienski, (217) 333-4382; (email) club@uiuc.edu
Kevin Welner, (303) 492-8370; (email) kevin.welner@gmail.com
TEMPE, Ariz and BOULDER, Colo. (March 13, 2008) - Six months ago, we released a "think tank review" of the Friedman Foundation's 2007 "ABCs of School Choice." Our reviewer, Professor Christopher Lubienski, pointed out numerous, serious flaws in the report. This week, the Friedman Foundation released a 2008, updated version of the "ABCs" report, but the flaws remain.
The new Friedman report offers a new font, but substantively little has changed. "Apparently," says Alex Molnar, co-director of the Think Tank Review Project, "the Friedman Foundation has taken the view that repetition of flawed analyses somehow strengthens them."
We therefore highlight here the findings that Professor Lubienski reached only half a year ago:
"The Friedman Foundation report repeatedly implies that it is merely passing on a consensus from the research literature - drawing from 'a large body of evidence' and 'numerous polls,' for instance," Lubienski writes. However, he notes, the report obscures the research it uses, making it very difficult to verify the accuracy of its claims. This is particularly problematic because, as the review finds, the Friedman report manifestly misstates the research literature.
Lubienski's review considers the merits of each key factual assertion in the report's "Frequently Asked Questions" section, which contains the main claims about research. Among other things, the review points out the following:
• While the Friedman document assumes private schools are better than public schools, and that therefore allowing choice would cause a child to perform better academically, such a claim "finds little useful support in the research literature." Moreover, the report's author "either ignores or is unaware of the substantial methodological problems and limitations" of studies cited to support the report's claims. The report also neglects a number of high-quality reports published in peer-reviewed journals "that seriously undermine the contention that choice necessarily raises academic achievement." In short, "the glowing summary of research provided in that report is highly biased and does not reflect the more nuanced and complex picture presented by a balanced look at the evidence on achievement."
• The Friedman Foundation also claims that competition improves public schools. However, while "a few studies have found small positive impacts associated with some types of choice ... most peer-reviewed studies have found no measurable impacts on public school productivity." Indeed, some have found a negative impact of choice on students in public schools.
• The report's assertion that choice programs don't drain money from public schools is both "false ... [and] a bit disingenuous" and relies on calculations that are "either meaningless or misleading."
• While citing studies by voucher advocates, none of them peer-reviewed, to support the assertion that choice programs lead to more integrated schools, the document ignores a number of peer reviewed studies suggesting "that choice may have increased segregation, both in other nations that have gone further down the route Friedman proposed, and in the U.S."
Lubienski concludes that the 2007 report, as a misleading work of advocacy, offers no useful guidance to policy makers.
"A policy advocacy publication like this should always be read cautiously; the buyer should beware and should read the fine print," he writes. "The problem here is that there is no fine print - there is only a glossy, highly attractive misrepresentation of the research literature."
Find Christopher Lubienski's review on the web at:
http://epicpolicy.org/thinktank/review-abcs-school-choice
About the Think Tank Review Project
The Think Tank Review Project (http://thinktankreview.org), a collaborative project of the ASU Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) and CU-Boulder's Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC), provides the public, policy makers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected think tank publications. The project is made possible by funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.
Kevin Welner, the project co-director, explains that the project is needed because, "despite their garnering of media attention and their influence with many policy makers, reports released by private think tanks can be of very poor quality. Too many think tank reports are little more than ideological argumentation dressed up as research. We believe that the media, policy makers, and the public will greatly benefit from having qualified social scientists provide reviews of these documents in a timely fashion." He adds, "we don't consider our reviews to be the final word, nor is our goal to stop think tanks' contributions to a public dialogue. That dialogue is, in fact, what we value the most. The best ideas come about through rigorous critique and debate."
CONTACT:
Christopher Lubienski, Associate Professor
Department of Educational Organization and Leadership
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(217) 333-4382
club@uiuc.edu
Kevin Welner, Professor and Director
Education and the Public Interest Center
University of Colorado at Boulder
(303) 492-8370
kevin.welner@gmail.com
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The Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) conducts original research, provides independent analyses of research and policy documents, and facilitates educational innovation. EPRU facilitates the work of leading academic experts in a variety of disciplines to help inform the public debate about education policy issues.
Visit the EPRU website at http://educationanalysis.org
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The Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder seeks to contribute information, analysis, and insight to further democratic deliberation regarding educational policy formation and implementation.
Visit the EPIC website at http://education.colorado.edu/epic
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