Fads and Evidence in Education

York, England, has a famous racecourse. When I lived there I never saw a horse race, but I did see women in town for the race all dressed up and wearing very strange contraptions in their hair, called fascinators. The picture below shows a couple of examples. They could be twisted pieces of metal or wire or feathers or just about anything as long as they were . . . well, fascinating. The women paraded down Mickelgate, York’s main street, showing off their fancy clothes and especially, I’d guess, their fascinators.

The reason I bring up fascinators is to contrast the world of fashion and the world of science. In fashion, change happens constantly, but it is usually change for the sake of change. Fascinators, I’d assume, derived from hats, which women have been wearing to fancy horse races as long as there have been fancy horse races. Hats themselves change all the time. I’m guessing that what’s fascinating about a fascinator is that it maintains the concept of a racing-day hat in the most minimalist way possible, almost mocking the hat tradition while at the same time honoring it. The point is, fascinators get thinner because hats used to be giant, floral contraptions. In art, there was realism and then there were all sorts of non-realism. In music there was Frank Sinatra and then Elvis and then Beatles and then disco. Eventually there was hip hop. Change happens, but it’s all about taste. People get tired of what once was popular, so something new comes along.

Science-based fields have a totally different pattern of change. In medicine, engineering, agriculture, and other fields, evidence guides changes. These fields are not 100% fad-free, but ultimately, on big issues, evidence wins out. In these fields, there is plenty of high-quality evidence, and there are very serious consequences for making or not making evidence-based policies and practices. If someone develops an artificial heart valve that is 2% more effective than the existing valves, with no more side effects, surgeons will move toward that valve to save lives (and avoid lawsuits).

In education, which model do we follow? Very, very slowly we are beginning to consider evidence. But most often, our model of change is more like the fascinators. New trends in education take the schools by storm, and often a few years later, the opposite policy or practice will become popular. Over long periods, very similar policies and practices keep appearing, disappearing, and reappearing, perhaps under a different name.

It’s not that we don’t have evidence. We do, and more keeps coming every year. Yet our profession, by and large, prefers to rush from one enthusiasm to another, without the slightest interest in evidence.

Here’s an exercise you might enjoy. List the top ten things schools and districts are emphasizing right now. Put your list into a “time capsule” envelope and file it somewhere. Then take it out in five years, and then ten years. Will those same things be the emphasis in schools in districts then? To really punish yourself, write the NAEP reading and math scores overall and by ethnic groups at fourth and eighth grade. Will those scores be a lot better in five or ten years? Will gaps be diminishing? Not if current trends continue and if we continue to give only lip service to evidence.

Change + no evidence = fashion

Change + evidence = systematic improvement

We can make a different choice. But it will take real leadership. Until that leadership appears, we’ll be doing what we’ve always done, and the results will not change.

Isn’t that fascinating?

Photo credit: Both photos by Chris Phutully [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This blog was developed with support from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Foundation.