7-14-04 -- "What Works" - Education Research Site Unveiled

7-14-04 -- "What Works" Research Site Unveiled -- Education Week

Practitioners and researchers who read the resulting reports at the What Works Web site, www.whatworks.ed.gov, last week said they were carefully and clearly written. Those observers also praised the site for its navigability.

Most were disappointed, though, to see that so few studies made the cut.

"School leaders are very eager to comply with the research-based mandates in No Child Left Behind," said Terri Duggan Schwartzbeck, a policy analyst for the Arlington, Va.-based American Association of School Administrators. "But when a superintendent looks at that he or she will say, ‘Oh, none of the research meets their standards—well, that’s not really going to help me.’"

Whether the meager showing reflects a lack of solid research in the field or overly strict clearinghouse methodological standards is debatable. Following research-evaluation practices in medicine, the clearinghouse puts a premium on randomized field trials, in which subjects are randomly assigned to either control or experimental groups.