Building on the premise that closing achievement gaps is an economic imperative both to regain international educational supremacy and to maintain global economic competitiveness, I ask whether it is possible to rewrite the social contract so that education is a fundamental right--a statutory guarantee--that is both uniform across states and…

Agrees with Feuer, Towne, and Shavelson's article about scientific culture and educational research and with the National Research Council Report upon which it was based, but contends that science does not mean the same thing to everyone, nor have distinctions between educational science and other sciences been well made in either report. Examines…

Addresses two issues from Feuer, Towne, and Shavelson's article, which examined scientific culture and educational research. Agrees that legislative mandates that give preference particular methodological approaches would be ill-informed and misdirected, recommending a mandate for rigorous peer review of federally funded work combined with funding…

In the context of a controversial award decision by the National Institute of Education (which contradicted the Project Review Board's recommendation), discusses peer review in competitions for federal research grants. Concludes that the principle of peer review needs clarification and that federal contracting procedures are ill-suited to the…

Asserts that both the Feuer, Towne, and Shavelson article on scientific culture and educational research and the recent National Research Council (NRC) report must be understood in the context of current federal discourse focused on experimentally derived causal explanations of educational program effectiveness. Notes that the NRC report risks…

In response to commentaries on an earlier essay, this paper suggests three points to extend the dialogue about teacher education reform, discussing the potential value of debates that marshal evidence for a particular policy position, the importance of open discussion about the ideologies underlying different positions, and cautions about the…

Reviews the Reagan administration's proposed budget cuts for education, educational research, and social science research. Holds that examples used to bolster the administration's criticisms of social and behavioral research come from the late 1960s/early 1970s, and ignore federally funded work currently focusing on educational practice, policy,…