Response to Criticism of Think Tank Studies

Letter to the Editor of The Denver Post

A recent article by CU-Boulder Associate Professor Kevin Welner (“Awards’ May Provide Think Tanks with a Reality Check”, January 14) did your readers, and several of the nation’s finest public policy research organizations, a disservice.

Perhaps Professor Welner did not read our report carefully. It at no point claims, as he states, “to demonstrate the success of California’s Proposition 227.” It instead demonstrates how certain districts that have adopted new policies to emphasize early English fluency – far from being “English Only” as our paper notes — have improved English learners’ standardized test scores. All data comes directly from the California Department of Education.

It was noteworthy that every one of the well-respected organizations singled out by Professor Welner supports a position contrary to the National Education Association’s legislative agenda. According to public filings with the U.S. Department of Labor, both organizations that sponsor Dr. Welner’s “Think Tank Review Project” — the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Arizona State University — received at least $200,000 in Partnership Development grants from the NEA during the last two reporting years. I find it troubling that this fact escaped the full disclosure Dr. Welner’s misleading article purported to establish.