HELIOLITH

The LA Times’ opinion page carried an interesting story Wednesday: that the Bush administration is reluctant to release the results of a study we paid for through the National Literacy Panel. An administration that touts science publically seems frequently at odds with accepted research (global warming, evolution, etc.)

Panelist Robert Slavin, an education professor at Johns Hopkins University, was asked to review the best-designed experiments, where children were randomly assigned to either bilingual or English-immersion classrooms. The administration, rightfully, wanted to test reforms with the same rigor with which it tests new drugs. Or so it said.

Slavin found that, according to the best data, children’s early literacy skills climbed at a faster rate in bilingual classrooms. He wanted to publish his findings immediately; the Education Department said to wait until the panel’s full report was done.

Whereas some have said that the study won’t be published, the ed department is saying they’re in negotiotions. Apparently, there are efforts to release the government copyright so the report can be published independently. Is that normal? Are they attempting to distance themselves from the news? One page I found that appears to represent the panel promises that the results are imminent. Fuller doesn’t mention this in his article.

Bruce Fuller, author of the story, and professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley questions why the administration would withold the results of its own report. He suggests that one possible explanation was that it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. The results of the report were peer-reviewed and reinforced by subsequent researchers after Slavins resigned in protest of the goverment’s non-disclosure of the findings. Fuller points out that groups like “English First” are strong Bush supporters, and wouldn’t be happy with the study.

Fuller rightly calls for the release of the report, “When the government invests in legitimate research, we should not be prevented from hearing the results.” Especially not when that data could so deeply impact the children we are trying to help to be successful in the world.