[AAACE-NLA]Preserving the importance and visibility of ERIC

[George E. Demetrion]

Last opportunity for a full court press.

From: gdemetrion at msn.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 8:08 AM
To: Rod.Paige at ed.gov
Cc: Jeff.C.Halsted at ed.gov
Subject: Preserving the importance and visibility of ERIC
 
May 7, 2003
 
The Honorable Rod Paige
U.S. Secretary of Education
Washington, D.C.
 
Dear Secretary Paige:
 
I write in support of maintaining and even strengthening the ERIC
Clearinghouse collections.  The materials in ERIC extend back for at
least a quarter century and contain a large depository of both
historically and contemporary relevant materials.  For my own research I
have downloaded materials from ERIC.  So have many practitioners and
scholars have done so who depend very much on this precious resource.
 
It is evident to me that the Department of Education wants to elevate the
newly-formed  What Works Clearinghouse.  I certainly support that, but as
the research base of What Works is somewhat narrowly focused on the
presuppositions supported by the current Department of Education focus on
scientific-based educational research, it becomes more important than
ever to alternative perspectives that have existed in the academic
literature on education for a century.  Of course, ERIC includes work in
the scientific-based mode, but also houses research from various
intellectual traditions as described, for example, in the important
monograph written by Donna C. Mertens (1997), titled, Research Methods in
Education and Psychology:  Integrating Diversity With Quantitative and
Qualitative Approaches.  Sage Publications.  Mertens speaks of various
research traditions in these fields which have informed educational
research for some time.  The preservation of ERIC helps to assure that
both scholarly and practitioner communities are able to have a rich
dialogue on the nature of effective educational principles and
methodology.  In a richly pluralistic nation as the United States, such
diversity of expression represents an important bulwark both in the realm
of education practice and in the strengthening of the vitality of civic
democracy where competing perspectives are publicly heard and discussed n
governmental and nongovernmental formats.

I have asked my congressional representatives, Representative John
Larson, and Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, from
Connecticut to advocate in support of maintaining the vitality of the
ERIC Clearinghouse.

I will send copies of this letters to Representative Larson and Senator
D=
odd and Lieberman

Thank you for your consideration.

George Demetrion


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