Now that Sol Stern has completely ruffled the feathers of the "whatever works" crowd, he's turned his sights to one of the most visible leaders of the "what works" movement, Institute for Educational Sciences director Russ Whitehurst. In a new City Journal Online piece, Stern critiques the recent Reading First evaluation and (joining Fordham's Amber Winkler, among others) points out its fatal flaw: the likelihood that the study's "control schools" were implementing many of the same programs as the study's "treatment group":
One reading scientist willing to speak on the record about these concerns is University of Illinois professor Timothy Shanahan, former president of the 85,000-member International Reading Association (the world's largest professional organization of reading teachers and scholars) and a recent inductee into the Reading Hall of Fame. Shanahan told me that he asked IES officials about the study design and was told that it was too late to change it.
Stern, reading the Washington tea leaves and sensing Congressional Democrats' eagerness to kill off the program, wants IES (i.e., Whitehurst) to admit the evaluation's limitations:
IES officials should at least point out that influential people in Washington are drawing unwarranted conclusions from a study that many reputable reading scientists find deeply flawed. It would be a stunning display of irresponsibility to remain silent after their study has contributed to so much public misunderstanding.
As I wrote last week, Russ Whitehurst can use Flypaper's valuable real estate anytime he wants to clear up this "public misunderstanding."
