San Diego — A panel of leading education researchers today expressed optimism that President Obama’s administration would be much more inclined to base education-policy decisions on the results of studies than they found his predecessor to be. But several members of the panel, assembled here as part of the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference, acknowledged that the new administration had sent mixed signals regarding how much priority it places on the work done by the organization’s members.
“We are in a very different atmosphere,” said Maris A. Vinovskis, a professor of history and public policy at the University of Michigan who has worked in past administrations and written extensively on education research.
“There will be difficulties ahead,” he said, but right now people within the Obama administration “are looking for help, are looking for guidance.” He argued that top officials within the Bush administration, by contrast, thought they knew all of the answers and “were not traumatized by doubt.”
Michael J. Feuer, executive director of the National Research Council’s Division of Behavior and Social Sciences and Education, said “it is a little early to tell” exactly how the Obama administration will work with education researchers. But he said he sees hope in President Obama’s references in his writings to favoring policies based on scientific inquiry over those based on absolute beliefs.
Mr. Feuer also said he sees some recent appointments to positions in the Department of Education as hopeful signs. He specifically cited the appointment of Marshall (Mike) S. Smith, who previously served as director of the education program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to serve as a senior adviser to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In addition to holding high-level Education Department posts under President Bill Clinton, Mr. Smith has been dean of Stanford University’s graduate school of education and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
One disappointing sign cited by the panel was the Obama administration’s failure to include money for education research in its economic-stimulus package.
Lorraine M. McDonnell, an education-policy expert who teaches political science at the University of California at Santa Barbara, warned the panel’s audience that education researchers cannot simply assume their work will inform federal policy. They will need to make their research and findings understandable to policy makers and the public, and avoid suggesting policies that are not backed by substantial empirical evidence.
Mr. Vinovskis, of Michigan, gave the bottom line: “Politics will not go away.” —Peter Schmidt
