by David Safier
Carolyn Classen posted about this on Carolyn's Community at the Citizen. TUSD Supe John Pedicone received a letter from J. Elliott Hibbs at the ADE stating "a national company specializing in research-based education solutions" has been engaged to investigate the Mexican American Studies program to determine if it is "complying with the requirements of A.R.S. § 15-112."
Who is this company? The letter doesn't say. Classen doesn't know either. We're both trying to find out. But meanwhile, let me use my blogger's privilege to speculate.
The term "research-based education solutions" sounds very much like the terminology used by the Bush adminstration to justify funding rigid phonics-based reading instruction over other valid methods of teaching reading. Their term of art was "scientifically based research standard." What it meant was, the Bush folks decided which programs they liked, then said those programs, and only those programs, had results proven by "scientifically based research."
I'm guessing this unnamed company has an educational philosophy that aligns with the Horne/Huppenthal ADE, and it will come up with the necessary "research" to back them up.