One of the reasons I was glad to start blogging was because I’d concluded that peer review and the other conventions of social research that make it into real science were not up to the task of contributing effectively to the policy debates in the halls of government.  I made this conclusion after watching the media reaction to various Jay Greene and Paul Peterson non peer reviewed studies of vouchers. The voucher boys themselves, in a response to my critique of their scienciness, basically asserted that it was a marketplace of ideas, science was in the eye of the beholder and that the world is flat or something or other.  Underneath this was the contention that traditional social science conventions weren’t something that we needed to follow to the letter in this day and age. The rules had changed.

I still don’t think this is a good thing, but I think it’s become true. And as result, I’ve been looking for different ways to bring my skills to bear in education policy debates. Which is why rather than darken the door of the Journal of Education Finance, I'm here blogging with you.

Jeff Henig has a new book out about just these issues.  He’s got a guest post about this up at Eduwonkette’s place. Jeff is one of the more thoughtful people I've met when it comes to this stuff, so I'm betting it is worthy of your attention.  Which doesn't mean I'm going to agree with it when I do read it. For example, in the post Jeff notes the potential for the blogosphere as a medium for proper analysis of research issues. I've found the it to be an imperfect platform in this regard.  It’s much easier to marginalize people than it is to bring light or find common ground.  There's potential, but, with the possible exception of Sherman Dorn,  I don’t think we’ve gotten it right.  So I want to see how Jeff handles this issue in depth.

AFT Related Note:  Jeff refers to a charter school achievement study by some of my colleagues. I'll point out it had much the same results as the US Department of Ed study that it preceded and anticipated.  And I found it hilarious that years after our dustup, the voucher boys were among the pious souls putting their names on the ad defending the concept of peer review that Jeff refers to in his post. There’s at least one word to describe that type of behavior.

Update: Jeff Henig responds in comments. And his book is called Spin Cycle: How Research is Used in Policy Debates. The Case of Charter Schools.