Comment on Asbury and Wai (2019), 'Viewing Education Policy through a Genetic Lens,' 'Journal of School Choice'

Y

15

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)

HD27082
HD38526

Educational Policy; Educational Finance; Financial Support; Resource Allocation; Best Practices; Intervention; Educational Research; Genetics; Behavioral Science Research; Statistical Analysis; Disability Identification; Dyslexia; Twins; Foreign Countries; Literacy; National Competency Tests; Numeracy

Australia; Colorado; Scandinavia; United Kingdom; Canada

10.1080/15582159.2020.1779577

1558-2159

Asbury and Wai ("Journal of School Choice," 2019) perform a valuable service by summarizing much available behavior--genetic research on academic achievement. However they consider that no specific policies stem from the research body at this time. Here we do propose a policy based on some of our research using twins, namely that available funding for students struggling with learning to read be targeted to them individually rather than allocated to schools per se. We briefly canvass some practical issues, such as the variety of funding mechanisms, best-practice intervention techniques, and identification of struggling readers. We also outline a general research strategy for uncovering factors contributing to educational attainment that takes behavior-genetic research as its starting point and drills down from there, and advocate including genetically-sensitive methods in a growing list of quantitative research techniques in education. [For Asbury and Wai's "Viewing Education Policy through a Genetic Lens," see EJ1259282.]

As Provided

2020

EJ1274802