This is truly astonishing news.
Valerie Strauss reports today that the U.S. Department of Education sent out an email announcing the suspension of the “What Works Clearinghouse,” a site where the Department publishes reports about research and shows “what works.”
Valerie Strauss notes: “I won’t mention the irony in the fact that department spends millions on school reform that has no proven record of success but ran out of cash for its Doing What Works website.”
Ironic, indeed, because almost everything the Department supports as part of its “Race to the Top” has no research to support it. The Department’s insistence that teachers should be evaluated, to a significant degree, by the test scores of their students is not supported by research. The Department’s support for performance pay, based on test scores, is contradicted by decades of research. The Department’s insistence that schools of education be graded by the test scores of the students taught by their graduates has no support in research. The Department’s lavishing of millions of dollars on charter schools has mixed support, at best, in research; judging by the results from Ohio, the Department should stop the proliferation of charter schools. The Department’s quiet acquiescence to the proliferation of vouchers has no support in evaluations or research. The Department’s silence in response to budget cuts to essential services has no basis in research. The Department’s promotion of standardized testing in the early grades and even pre-kindergarten has no basis in research. The Department has placed no priority on reducing class size, even though the “What Works Clearinghouse” has found that smaller classes benefit high-needs students.
Is it any wonder that the Department decided it could no longer afford to keep open a website that shows no support for its own misguided policies?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How well I remember when the “What Works Clearinghouse” was the reform cure-all du jour. OMG, the HYPE that accompanied its introduction! Oh, the praise from the educrats and pundits and politicians! It was THE GAME CHANGER.
LOL. This is very, very amusing.
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I guess the DOE doesn’t want a lot of reminders around of how what it says works doesn’t.
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This amounts to the same strategy John White used for our LDOE website – hide the evidence. But the Internet is a wonderful thing. It doesn’t forget.
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If You Ask, They Will Answer
http://atthechalkface.com/2013/09/24/if-you-ask-they-will-answer/
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Although the Washington Post announced the What Works website is no longer active, I found that it still is active–at least this afternoon 9/24 at 3pm EDT.
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Are you sure they suspended or just didn’t update it with the latest information they have? Nothing.
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That said, research is important. There is much to be known. We are barely beginning. And a good research site, freely available, is of immense value IF it vets, via impartial juries, the research posted and provides forums for discussion and critique of the research.
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This was exactly what William “Bill” Bosher did in Virginia after being appointed state superintendent by George Allen in the early 1990s. Allen ushered in the “new” state standards of learning program, with its concomitant testing regimen. Bosher “reorganized” the state department of education, and in the process eliminated the department of research and evaluation. They were not interested in such things.
Some years later, Allen went to U.S. Senate where he voted for huge unfunded tax cuts, and No Child Left Behind, and war in Iraq. Then, of course, there was this:
And Bosher? IN 2002, he was named dean of VCU’s school of education.
http://www.news.vcu.edu/article/William_Bosher_apppointed_dean_of_VCUs_School_of_Education
He now serves as the executive director of the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute at VCU, where he writes such nonsense as ” the rich always give more than they get and the poor benefit.” In an evaluation of how one central Virginia allocates its resources, the team headed by Bosher failed to interview even one teacher.
In his brief blurb on Diane Ravitch’s book (which he terms “controversial”) Bosher says this: “…education…can learn some valuable lessons from the free enterprise system. If it doesn’t work, close it. If it does work, replicate it. If you don’t know the difference, contract with someone who does.”
Yeah…this dude headed a state department of education; and a school of education; and a public policy center.
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They don’t know what works b/c they only look at those who standardize their kids. They are afraid to try something different. Research this and see if it works b/c you can’t standardize and individualize at the same time. http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/
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Next Idea is about Burning Books! Have we heard that somewhere before. I know you think this is a stretch, but go back and read some of the stories of those who lived in Germany, but did not accept what was happening. Einstein wrote about it. We need to again become a nation of readers, especially now since we have access to so much information. This is an outrageous example of the lengths our so called leaders will go to in order to have their way, even though research shows it is not the correct way for our Children and Grandchildren.
Interesting that none of these people or companies they represent would accept a major change in the way they do business with NO testing trials or research to back up the major change, but it is fine to impose it on ALL of the nations children. I do not know why I am surprised by this act because this has been the way we have treated children and people working with children for 200 years! Even Doctors working with children are paid and treated as second class Doctors. I will never forget a comment from my own mother 45 years ago when I hinted that maybe I would become a teacher. Her reply was, “At the least, you should consider becoming a Pediatrician. ” Now I know what she was inferring. Talking with the members of my local Chamber of Commerce, I now realized NONE of them have even looked at the Common Core Standards! This is very upsetting because WE should NOT be making MAJOR decisions without knowledge of what we are changing and why. We can now see how a whole nation of very intelligent people can be influenced to do almost anything without much choice or thought. This should be a HUGE call for Americans to Wake-Up before it is too late. We are losing our Democracy and the terrorists do not need to do anything more to make that happen because a FEW very wealthy, powerful people are doing it for them. ALL I can do is pray for my Grandchildren. Maybe we can have a National Boycott of Exxon! Please Help Make That Happen before they take away all our ability to question what is happening to our Children and Grandchildren. We are at a tipping Point. It is now up to us! God Bless America!
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Does this not really tell you who Obama and Duncan are and who controls them? The war is on people. They have declared it on the new LAUSD board made up of life time teachers. Can’t have that as we do not have control. Don’t let people look at research as they might learn something even if unintended. Don’t have open discussion and at least run a test of your new ground changing theories. Theories are not fact until proven multiple times. What is so new to them unless it is the OTHER AGENDA.
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No accident that Arne’s U.S. Dept of Ed received the infamous 2010 Bunkum Awards …http://nepc.colorado.edu/bunkum/2010/good-enough-government-work-award
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This What Works Clearinghouse contained dubious advice. I went there looking for a new character ed curriculum for our district. They gave their highest rating to the piece-of-garbage curriculum our district was already using (called Positive Action). Incredulous, I examined the basis for their judgment. I saw that it was based on three small studies, two of which had been run by the businesswoman who owned Positive Action! In other words, DOE was giving their imprimatur to what could easily have been fraudulent research.
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Ponderosa, Give a try to our books. It’s really simple. Ideas like role playing and taking videos of catching kids being good etc. Quashing the Rhetoric of Reform can be found at http://www.wholechildreform.com
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And we actually did what the book says
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what we are experiencing is the initiation of a ‘Bunker Mentality.; We are quickly moving past the time when beliefs, driven by evidence-based research, were viable tools for policy change. The most current historical resemblance was during the War in Vietnam. When Johnson and McNamara and Nixon and Kissenger attempted to insulate themselves from the rising tide of protests in the streets. i am not attempting to argue for historical equivalency, but, rather to offer the thought that we are moving. rather quickly towards a moment when it will be necessary to mobilize parents, educators – all those who believe that the current movement in education has to be stopped – to come together as a unified counter weight protest to the government and private sector sponsored grand mistake.
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I know this is far fetched, but could they actually realize that what “works” is artificial and under a standardized system of education, nothing works? Nah!
At least try something different http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/
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The What Works Clearinghouse has not been shut down. The Department of Education’s announcement was in reference to Doing What Works — a different program and website.
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I called and e mailed the IES office. I spoke with Joy Lesnick at 202 -219- 2013.
The way she describes it is “Doing what works” started under M. Spelling has been moved into records/digitized forms etc and “consolidated” but the What Works Clearinghouse is still ok and in operation. The email sent out was about “Doing What Works” and there has been some re=formatting of the materials to make them more “user friendly”. Joy assured me that ERIC and the What Works Clearinghouse are still ok. Ruth Neild is the supervisor of that unit IES…. Joy was very reassuring to me on the phone. Others could call them (it’s almost 5:00 pm back east so they won’t be available much longer.)
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David Coleman called for a What Doesn’t Work website, so don’t be surprised if funds for that suddenly materialize –though I would be very sceptical of what they claim.
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Michael Scriven has been very active since the 1970s in these endeavors and he always wanted it “peer reviewed” rather than “submissions”; I don’t know what his current thinking is on the submission of materials but he would definitely want evaluations of programs. They need to gather scientific data and not controlled by politicians with pet projects.
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To determine what works it must be allowed to try things that are truly different. However, individualizing kids is not allowed. Innovation is not consistent with best practices b/c it is not based on what has been done and failed. It’s based on what might works and is tried. http://www.wholechildreform.com
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“Doing What Works” is at West Ed in Calif. This is the portion/segment that is being “moved” or “consolidated” or “reformatted/ digitized” but the original What Works Clearinghouse is still solvent/??? It’s 5:00 pm in Boston so I called the CA phone number to get an answer before the day is over.
PROJECT DIRECTOR at West Ed
Nikola “nickie”Filby
415.615.3124nfilby@wested.org
—————–
I know the award for the ERIC clearinghouse was just re-assigned recently and there has been some “down time” in getting records up and available again. I have been e-maiiing them since spring. The last I heard is they are trying to get the records scoured of personal identifying data that would be considered private and then all will be “well again” and ERIC will have copies available through the search service.. This project is very dear to my heart as I operated (with my Director Dick Lavin) the ERIC center for Massachusetts and the Institute for Educational Services in Massachusetts (before the R&D lab was set up for New England). It is true there were personal identifiers in the ERIC files back in 1970 because an application from a college or university for an awarded project would include/append personal data etc. We prepared hundreds of documents submitted at that time from MA and about 20 or 30 are still in ERIC whereas some are out of date and could only be part of historiography.
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What really works is here, and we did it in 1995. http://www.wholechildreform.com But not standardizing kids individualizing them
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This person is mentioned in Valerie Strauss’ article and would probably have more information..
Massie Ritsch
Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach (Acting) at U.S. Department of Education
Washington D.C.
U.S. Department of Education
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Yes, Jean Sanders is correct. It’s not the What Works Clearinghouse that has been taken down. It’s still up and running: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/
WWC does the evaluations–that’s what has been controversial because of the very, very narrow focus of their evaluation efforts.
It’s the research-to-practice website called” Doing What Works” that is no longer being supported. That was the web site that had more teacher-friendly materials and strategies. Frankly, I liked that web site and used to use it all the time for their literacy information to share with pre-service teachers. I’m quite sad that the piece that was actually useful to teachers is no longer being supported. DWW had been contracted out to AIR and WestEd — not sure if they just lost the contract, or if this is a result of the sequestration, or what. And I’m also not sure why they thought the materials need to be more “user friendly.” Some of the existing free materials are still available in the WestEd bookstore.
This was the email I had received:
From: “U.S. Department of Education”
Subject: Update on the Doing What Works Website
Date: September 20, 2013 8:29:36 PM EDT
Dear subscriber:
The U.S. Department of Education has suspended operation of the Doing What Works website. We sincerely regret this unfortunate event. You can still acquire many DWW media and materials through other channels. Please email dww@wested.org for specific instructions on how you can gain access to DWW media and materials.
Sincerely,
The DWW Team
Diane, perhaps you should post a clarification of this?
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Great post!
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I just heard that they are starting two new websites. The first is supposed to be called, “Show me the money.” I can’t wait to see what that is about.
The second is supposed to be called,
“Arne may not know history, but he has a hell of a jump shot.”
I especially can’t wait for the second one. I am a big B-Ball fan.
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