From April 11-14, the American Educational Research Association will gather in Philadelphia for its annual meeting. The challenges facing the world's largest education and research organization are real, given the significant learning losses and declining trust in higher education. The list of topics that require rigorous investigation is staggering: explosive absenteeism, artificial intelligence, the impact of cell phones and social media, disrupted classrooms, school choice and new ways to expand science-based reading. The impact of legislation, the cost of college, and the state's ability to offer free questions on campus, to name a few.
There is a lot of useful research to be done and an open discussion is needed. Unfortunately, AERA is more interested in progressive Jeremiah than in doing such work. This year's conference is titled “Dismantling Racial Injustice and Building Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action,” and AERA isn't even trying to ignore the politics of this incident. The title “A Call to Action” is apt. It is clear that the purpose of the meeting is not to ponder but to proselytize.
The program claims that “the destruction of truth, attacks on racial theory, banning of books, and erasure of history are commonplace,” and that participants are committed to “eradicating racism” and “all other forms of oppression.” “How can we take a “cross-cutting approach'' to this issue?'' ” Now, even though AERA claims that this “call for a global dialogue on race, racism, and its redress is long overdue,” astute observers One might note that it actually doesn't seem all that different from recent AERA conferences such as “Fostering Equitable Education.” 21st Century System” or “Using Educational Research in the ‘Post-Truth’ Era”.
This expansive conference has over 2,500 sessions, 14,000 attendees, and boasts four “featured” speakers. Kimberly W. Crenshaw, “Civil Rights, Critical Race Theory; [and] “Black Feminist Legal Theory” talks about “defending the freedom to learn in a war against the woke.” AERA President Tyrone Howard will offer his thoughts on “Recognizing and Redressing Racial Injustice in Education.” Gloria Ladson Billings, an early proponent of critical race theory, will speak on “'Not Yet Plessy': Her Seven Decades After Brown.” and Loyola Marymount University Professor Dolores Delgado Bernal, who leverages her research to provide “critical racial feminist practice” and “pedagogical, methodological, and activist approaches to social justice.” It's planned.
Although AERA's official mission is to “advance knowledge about education, encourage academic research related to education, and promote the use of research to improve education and contribute to the public good,” and show an astonishing lack of interest in knowledge, inquiry, and healthy debate. . In fact, AERA operates less as an academic organization and more as a bastion of far-left identitarian groupthink.
For example, in 2020, AERA co-authored a “Statement in Support of Anti-Racist Education,” which affirmed that AERA members “must oppose the notion that systemic racism does not exist.” That same year, AERA's president denounced “white supremacist testing” as “traumatic.”[ing] They say to students of color, “They're not smart, they're not good, they're not qualified.'' So much for a careful discussion of valuation.
In 2021, AERA members unanimously passed a resolution to no longer hold conferences or public events in states with “anti-trans laws.” The resolution itself was fairly vague, but it did not include state laws requiring schools to inform parents how their child's gender will be identified, restricting access to puberty blockers, or restricting access to puberty blockers. It soon became clear that women would be required not to participate in sports teams. It is considered a hateful “anti-trans” measure.
In 2022, AERA filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court upholding race-based admissions practices. In 2023, when the court found such practices unconstitutional, AERA issued a statement decrying the ruling as a “low-water mark” likely to cause all kinds of harm to higher education. .
AERA is not only failing to promote responsible research, it is actively undermining it. After all, when professional associations decide that only certain views are defensible or legitimate, it hinders researchers' ability to ask difficult questions without fear. As AERA leaders adopt party lines on hotly contested issues that promise to suppress useful research or quash informed debate, the distinction between a research organization and an advocacy organization is diminished. Lost.
All of this raises two very real questions. Why should taxpayers subsidize this system, and why should public officials focus on it?
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All of this would be troublesome enough if AERA were a strictly private organization. However, AERA is not strictly a private company. We award research grants in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Most of our funding comes from membership fees, magazine subscriptions, and faculty travel expenses. For academics in the public sector, many of these funds are provided by taxpayers. Even for private institutions, many of these funds come from taxpayer-funded grants awarded by federal research agencies.
Federal agencies should stop partnering with AERA, and Congress should insist that no more research funding flows to AERA. Lawmakers who fund public universities and trustees who oversee them should find better uses for the money currently flowing into AERA's politicized coffers. There is no reason for taxpayers to subsidize a “research organization'' that avoids research aimed at defending ideology.
Rick Hess is a senior fellow and director of education policy research at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on issues in K-12 education and higher education.
