To the Editor:
It was not clear from your article“No Test-Score Edge Found for Cleveland Voucher Students” (Feb. 22, 2006) whether Clive R. Belfield’s report, “The Evidence on Education Vouchers,” was peer-reviewed or somehow vetted by the field.
It may be a very good paper; I don’t know. I simply wish that Education Week coverage were more mindful of the issue that education research varies widely in quality, which you have reported on yourself in the past (“Release of Unreviewed Studies Sparks Debate,” May 18, 2005.)
Journalists have an obligation to distinguish between, say, working papers put out by a researcher’s own institution and polished, authoritative articles that have been screened by editors and peer-reviewed by critical, anonymous referees.
Steven Glazerman
Washington, D.C.
