From the Editor

We are very pleased by the initial response to our announcement of the Independent Education Review. Despite some bumps in the road we have hit a nerve and tapped into a felt need.

While the Review is still taking shape, it seems useful to outline some of the types of articles we are contemplating running. We appreciate suggestions and, particularly, volunteers. We have received our first submission, which is curretnly undergoing review.

In large part the eventual form of our journal will depend on what we receive and where the interest lies. In developing the concept, however, we envisioned several kinds of articles, all dealing with some aspect of education policy:

1. Research reports, particularly comparative studies. We have no requirement that such reports have a literature review of other research on the issue. There are several reasons for this stance: the need for a review of the literature slows down publication of interesting research, such literature reviews are often superficial or incomplete giving a false impression about what is known on a topic, and often the empirical researcher may not have the skill or knowledge needed for a complete review of the literature. For more thoughts on this subject, click here.
2. Literature surveys. We particularly welcome submissions from those hardy souls willing to dig through the literature on an education policy issue and summarize it. We are especially interested in summaries that include older research and that ignored by publications pushing a particular viewpoint. We are looking both for completeness and for fair-mindedness. While authors of literature reviews are encouraged to draw conclusions from the research, we hope they include and fairly discuss research running counter to their conclusion.
3. Responses to articles in the first two categories.
4. Book reviews. We welcome submissions from authors or publishers with a book to be reviewed. We also encourage submission of reviews from our readers. (We suggest those interested in writing a review send an e-mail summarizing the book prior to writing the review.) Eventually we hope to develop a corps of reviewers matched to their interests.
5. Critical reviews of an article in another publication. We encourage critiques of research and other articles published elsewhere, paticularly if that article shows signs of ideological bias or inadequate controls. For example, we are struck by how few of the middle school mathematics studies survived the What Works Clearninghouse screen, despite years in which the publishers pointed to these studies to back up their claims of effectiveness. Our hope is to more quickly sort out the bad from the worthwhile in education policy research.
6. Other thematic review sections including articles, Web sites, other journals, other orgnaization, not necessarily from a critical viewpoint but one of keeping track of what is being said. A possible model here is the back section of the Wilson Quarterly, which summarizes articles in other publications.