StickWithANose

As part of my dissertation, I read every book produced by six national think tanks* between 1998-2008 that specifically address education policy. It was painful. Often disguised as academic research, the books these “policy institutes” produce is thinly veiled corporate propaganda that makes bold claims without the need of messy things like data. However, what really strikes me about the modern political think tank is how slick of an operation it has become… As Andrew Rich notes, the modern political think tank is a sleeky styled marketing machine that commands a disproportionate presence in public discourse.

Although universities produce 14 to 16 times more educational research in a year than advocacy-oriented think tanks, a new study of the media outlets that most influence education news coverage — the New York Times, Washington Post, and Eduction Week – finds that think tank reports are more likely to be cited by reporters. What’s more, think tank reports perceived as “centrist” or “right” garner more media coverage than those perceived as “left.”

Of course, the author of this article [Dana Goldstein] goes on to offer a justification about the relevance of think tank “research” without noting the differences between the two. Peer-reviewed research is driven by data not politics. Think tanks are driven by politics not data. The “research” they produce is all about being relevant to current political debates and less concerned with being right. They operate in the knowledge-power nexus where pre-existing policies are recycled for new problems, both real and manufactured.

*National Commission on Education & the Economy, Brookings, Hoover, AEI, Cato, & Manhattan Institutes