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

Abstract

Asbury and Wai (<i>Journal of School Choice</i>, 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.