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‘One Stop’ Research Shop Seen as Slow to Yield Views That Educators Can Use

Optimism was running high in September 2002 when the U.S. Department of Education unveiled its plans for a clearinghouse to vet effectiveness studies on educational programs and practices. The hope was that the What Works Clearinghouse, within just a few years, would become an online one-stop shop where practitioners and policymakers could get the lowdown on what research has to say about what works in education.

But four years and nearly $23.4 million later, critics call the What Works Clearinghouse the “nothing works” clearinghouse. As of last week, its Web site had posted reports for only 32 interventions—only eight of which have a “positive” or “potentially positive” effectiveness rating.

“I can’t tell if that’s because so little works, or because the clearinghouse has been so sluggish or so meticulous,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., an assistant secretary for educational research and improvement in the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan administration. He is now the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,...