What Doesn’t Work: The Challenge and Failure of the What Works Clearinghouse to Conduct Meaningful Reviews of Studies of Mathematics Curricula

Abstract

An early version of this article, discussing curricular interventions in mathematics, was written for the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which funds WWC, instructed WWC not to publish it. An expanded version, written at WWC’s invitation for a special issue of an independent electronic journal and a book to be published by WWC, argued that methodological problems rendered some WWC mathematics reports potentially misleading and/or uninterpretable. IES instructed WWC staff not to publish their chapters—thus canceling the publication of the special issue and the book. Those actions, chronicled here, raise important issues concerning the role of federal agencies and their contracting organizations in suppressing scientific research that casts doubt on current or intended federal policy.