Be Your Own Sleuth: Six Ways to Investigate Controversial Treatments for LD

Check out these resources for more information about research in education and proven vs. controversial therapies. While many of these are intended for educators, they could be extremely helpful for parents as they gather information and hone their skills as informed and empowered decision-makers, consumers and advocates for their children.

Best Evidence Encyclopedia

The Best Evidence Encyclopedia is a free web site created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE) under funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. It is intended to give educators and researchers fair and useful information about the strength of the evidence supporting a variety of programs available for students in grades K-12.

What Works Clearinghouse

Educators trying to make choices to help students and schools meet high standards can become overwhelmed by the amount of education research. It can also be hard to identify research with credible and reliable evidence to use in making informed decisions. As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

Knowledge Loom

The Knowledge Loom is a place for educators worldwide to review research that identifies promising practices related to various themes, view stories about the practices in real schools/districts, learn to replicate the success of these practices in their own organization, add their own stories and knowledge to the collections, discover supporting organizations and resources, including annotated Web links.

Clear Thinking with Psychology: Separating Sense from Nonsense

By John Ruscio. Wadsworth Group, Thompson Learning, Inc. (2002)
This short text could easily be used as a introductory text in an education or psychology class because it is easy to ready and straightforward in laying out what are some of the most important ways to think about and evaluate “evidence.”

Scientific Research in Education

National Research Council, Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research.
National Academies Press. (2002)
Don’t be chased off by the title. This book lays of some of the similarities and differences between scientific inquiry in education vs. other fields, and give a number of easy to understand examples to illustrate these ideas. The take away message in this volume is that all high quality scientific research shares a common set of principles, and parents should be on the lookout for these must-haves when they ask questions about alternative therapies and claims about why they work.

Quackery: How should it be defined?

By Stephen Barrett, MD.
This website is a fun destination for anyone who wants to browse the web for ideas of all sorts that seem controversial. It offers a fair amount of education-related content about controversial therapies and approaches, and cites studies where parents can learn more about the “why” behind the worry.