MONTH XXXX 1

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes—an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. (p. 304) The desire to differentiate “truth from nonsense ” has been a con-stant struggle within science, and the education sciences are no exception. Over the past decade, these efforts have been espe-cially pronounced at the federal level, with the creation of the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education. More to the point, IES funded the creation of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) in 2002 to serve as a “central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education ” (WWC, 2013). Similar, alternative resources have been created, including the Doing What Work