Education Next – Harry Brighouse, Helen F. Ladd, Susanna Loeb and Adam Swift
“Evidence Speaks focuses weekly on what we know about a relevant topic that can help policy makers make better decisions. For example, last week Mark Dynarski provided evidence on professional development for teachers. A search of Amazon turns up several books, in different policy areas, called “Data-Driven Decision Making.” Although evidence clearly contributes to thoughtful policy-making, evidence cannot and should not drive policy decisions. When we make decisions, or policies, we are driven by a desire to achieve a set of goals. The role of data is to provide evidence on how our choices are likely to affect the realization of our goals. Evidence informs decisions so that, if the evidence is good and we interpret it well, the results of our decisions align better with what we value.” (more)