For Better Schools, Start With the Evidence
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Presumably, we’d like to think that most government regulations begin with a firm grounding in evidence that they’d have the intended result. After all, U.S. federal regulations must undergo a cost-benefit analysis to determine that they make economic sense, and the opinions of Congressional Budget Office analysts on the fiscal impact of reforms can help sway opinions. Even so, most policy changes in America and worldwide are based on ideology rather than strong evidence of what works.
A nascent, evidence-based policy movement is trying to change that. At the same time, a close look at efforts to improve education demonstrates how very far we have to go before “evidence-based policy” can be much more than a slogan.