I think I’m getting jaded. I am beginning to wonder whether lobbying for balanced reporting of evaluation and research findings is a waste of time. With voices more influential than mine weighing in on the opposite side, I’m having trouble staying positive. Granted, I do find inspiration in the work of people much wiser than me who have confronted this issue. One such source is my favorite sociologist, Stanislav Andreski, who wrote the following in his book, Social Sciences as Sorcery:
In matters where uncertainty prevails and information is accepted mostly on trust, one is justified in trying to rouse the reading public to a more critical watchfulness by showing that in the study of human affairs evasion and deception are as a rule much more profitable than telling the truth.1
The problem is, wisdom like Andreski’s languishes on dusty library shelves and the dust-free shelves of the Open Library. Much more (dare I call it?) airtime goes to large and prestigious institutions that are comfortable spinning research results to suit their purposes.
Fortunately, I am not so demoralized as to pass up the opportunity to share yet another institution-stretching-the-truth-about-research-data story with you. This involves an evaluation project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University. [Read more]
