TCS: Tech Central Station - Rigor-Free Research

TCS: Tech Central Station - Rigor-Free Research Interesting post on "scientific" standards for assessing educational outcomes. The big problem, of course, is that so darned many factors go into student success. There's another problem with NCLB, and that's the focus on "hard" or quantitative data. It's perfectly legitimate to do research based on anecdote and case study, or qualitative data. NCLB needs to be changed to reflect that. BUt here's a telling quote:

But there's a deep well of hostility to cold, hard, number-heavy science, poisoned further by liberal elites' loathing of the Bush administration. Though the move to controlled studies started in the Clinton administration, it didn't take off till Bush pushed through No Child Left Behind, which greatly increased federal education funding and insisted that all federally funded programs be research-based. If Bush's guys want scientific rigor, it must have something to do with Halliburton, right?