ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to make sense of the federal government's incursion into legislating scientific method in the realm of educational research via the "evidence-based" movement of the past few years. It addresses congressional disdain regarding educational research via the National Research Council's (NRC) report Scientific Research in Education, primary interest is in the structure of the situation. It turns to the attempts of the NRC report to negotiate between the federal government and the educational research community what it means to do scientific educational research. The chapter addresses the many factors at play including the Science Wars and the needs of neoliberal states in a time of proliferating insurgent "special interests", including that of conservative restoration. It suggests that the Left needs a policy turn, with a focus on program evaluation as a particularly cogent site where a policy relevant counterscience might be worked out.
