Research: Researching the Researchers

Experts worry about the influence of advocacy-based education studies.

By Debra Viadero

The Education Policy Studies Laboratory, a study center at Arizona State University in Tempe, seemed to be gearing up for a fight when it circulated a report last fall attacking the work of the Mackinac Center, a Michigan-based think tank.

"Mackinac Center work is often of low quality, and because of this it should be treated with considerable skepticism by the public, policymakers, and political leaders," concluded the study, which was written by two academics. The authors based their conclusion on an examination of 11 years of education-related studies by the think tank, which was founded to advance free-market principles.

The words were harsh—especially in the generally cautious and genteel world of education scholarship. But the mission of the policy-studies lab, founded by a feisty education professor at the university, is to provide a counterpoint to what some see as a proliferation of education reports coming from think tanks, like Mackinac, that were founded to advocate...