Pilot Project on Educational Accountability
Dr. John Merrifield
University of Texas – San Antonio, Economics Professor Emeritus
Principal Investigator
Dr. Richard P. Phelps
Nonpartisan Education Group
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Nathan Gray
Young Harris College
Co-Principal Investigator
Executive Summary
The proposed project will develop an improved accountability structure for K-12 educators,
and establish a process for holding K-12 school system reform scholars, public intellectuals,
think tanks, and journalists accountable for their ‘contributions’ to the school system reform
debate. We are inspired and driven by the dire U.S. K-12 school system circumstances (six
authoritative ‘Nation at Risk’ declarations*1), AND by Myron Lieberman’s prescient
observation that:
“As long as no negative consequences follow even egregiously mistaken credence goods
[trusted information and analysis sources], better educational policies are improbable.”
(p 292 of Educational Morass – 2007).
Total Sought from the XYZ Foundation: $421,500 (2-yr project).
Pilot Scope – Top Active Intellectuals, Media, Foundations, and Think Tanks
A.) Public Intellectuals: 1) Linda Darling-Hammond; 2) Eric Hanushek; 3) Daniel Koretz 4) Paul
Peterson. (See Appendix F.)
B.) Education Media: 1) Chalkbeat; 2) Education Week; 3) Education Writers Association;
4) Hechinger Report; and 5) The 74.
C.) Think Tanks: 1) Brookings Institution; 2) Center on Education Policy Research (Harvard U.); 3)
Center for Research on Educational Standards and Student Testing (UCLA, U. Colorado, Rand
Corporation); 4) Hoover Institution (Stanford U.); 5) Learning Policy Institute (Stanford U.); 6)
National Bureau of Economic Research (Harvard U.); 7) National Education Policy Center
(NEPC); 8) The National Research Council (NRC); 9) Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD); (See Appendix G.) 10.) TTRP; 11.) EdChoice; 12.) Fordham Institute;
and; and the 13.) National Center for Study of Privatization in Education (NCSPE).
Note: In this pilot round, we will emphasize think tanks that have been active in the educatorstudent accountability research area (#1-#9). Later rounds, will be more balanced between
attempts to improve accountability and other education policy.
Context
The real value-added of the RSSRR begins with our ability to highlight important research and
place it in context. What this means is that along with an abstract or executive summary to
describe the report, we can provide a brief overview of key issues and important questions, as
well as similar research in the field. For example, if a report were released on the utility of
school inspection services we would supplement the paper’s abstract with a short summary of
other recent research on this specific subject. The context summary would also include an
overall assessment of research to date, including the number of studies, their general quality,
and findings. We would also seek to identify common themes in research questions examined
and conclusions reached.
https://www.schoolsystemreformstudies.net/nation-at-risk-vi/ Because the world’s best school systems are only about ten percent better than the U.S. system, it’s a dire global situation.