Researchers decry Trump picks for education sciences advisory board
Dec. 11, 2020 , 9:10 PM
One month before his term expires, President Donald Trump has revived a moribund federal education research advisory panel by appointing eight members who appear to have no expertise in the subject area.
The National Board for Education Sciences (NBES) provides guidance to the director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. But the lack of a quorum on the 15-member presidentially appointed board has prevented it from meeting since the waning days of the Obama administration.
That lengthy presidential snub of the panel was part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to shrink government that resulted in a reduced flow of scientific advice to various federal agencies. That effort has had a particularly dramatic impact at regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, where the administration dismantled
The study found that the typical Black teacher in Chicago ranked at the 37th percentile in classroom observation scores, compared to the 55th percentile for the typical White teacher. Once the researchers controlled for differences in school and classroom factors, including student poverty, misconduct rates, and incoming academic achievement, the gap statistically disappeared. This race gap in scores is important because the evaluation of teacher performance through classroom observations is a common practice in schools across the country, often paired with other measures of teaching effectiveness, such as those based on student test scores. Teachers classroom observation scores are used by school districts nationwide to determine teacher tenure and promotion decisions.