[wrp]

> ~57% of teachers have Master's degree or higher.

This points to an important issue. I think most college-educated people are aware that at a typical university in the USA, the College of Education is separate from the College of Arts & Sciences. What they are probably not aware of without direct experience is the tremendous difference in academic rigor between Education and the Social Sciences. I've been nosing around Education programs for years and a good deal of what goes on in classrooms reminds me of my own experiences in junior high school. We like to joke about classes in Underwater Basket Weaving, but I once actually saw a 10-week, upper-division course in how to make use of a photocopier.

Now to the point. Among the Social Sciences, the field that has developed the most rigor in experimental standards and application of mathematics is probably Psychology. On the other hand, over in the College of Education, there is a field of Educational Psychology, which may be held up as an example of cargo cult science.

Published results on the psychology of learning attract a fair amount of attention on HN, but often the most dramatic reports are coming out of Educational Psychology, not Psychology. Readers need to be aware of the distinction between those fields to better adjust the credence they give to their output.