Education research has long had a poor reputation despite its many valuable contributions to policy and practice. The data to answer questions about public education have often been insufficient, poorly planned, poorly understood, or poorly funded, and the result has been confusion about what the data mean. Data on high school dropouts is a prime example—differing methods of calculating dropout rates have led to strikingly different, and often misleading, results. Two reports on that issue, as well as reports on other measurement issues, clarify the problems with education data and propose new approaches. |
