Inform the public
Explain, in plain language, how structural problems in testing produce inflated scores and mislead parents, taxpayers, and policymakers.
Advocacy for honest educational testing
Every parent deserves to know what their child knows and when they know it.
Every child is not above average. The tests should say so honestly.
Thirty-seven years after the Lake Wobegon Effect was exposed, state tests still report flattering results that collapse when compared with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The Honest Education Alliance exists to inform the public and drive policy change.
75% → 16%
Mississippi reading: state test vs NAEP
49% → 28%
New York City ELA: state test vs NAEP
37 years
Since the original Lake Wobegon findings—still unresolved
What is the Honest Education Alliance?
We are an advocacy organization founded in 2025 by Dr. John Jacob Cannell, MD—the physician who documented the Lake Wobegon Effect in 1987. We believe education is the most important subject a society can engage in, and that nothing is more corrosive to it than dishonesty dressed up as reform.
Document the evidence
Publish research and sources—from the original Friends for Education reports to today’s state-vs-NAEP gaps—so anyone can verify the claims.
Promote policy change
Advance concrete reforms: expand NAEP to every student in key grades, and create an independent national testing agency with real security.
Dr. John Jacob Cannell, MD
Founder of Friends for Education (1987) and the Honest Education Alliance (2025). The physician who first documented the Lake Wobegon Effect.
The Lake Wobegon Effect
In 1987, every U.S. state reported that its elementary students scored above the national average on commercial standardized tests—a statistical impossibility. The finding was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Education and covered by the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and 60 Minutes.
The same structural incentives remain: educators help pick the tests, administer them, and report the results. Scores rise. Independent measures often do not.
“U.S. educators pick the test, administer the test, and report the results — the equivalent of asking taxpayers to audit their own tax returns and submit the results to the IRS.”
— Lake Wobegon White Paper (2026)Research & reports
Primary documents from the Lake Wobegon research program and current HEA analysis.
Nationally Normed Elementary Achievement Testing
How All Fifty States Are Above the National Average — the original Friends for Education report that documented the Lake Wobegon Effect.
Thirty-Seven Years of Educational Fraud
Updated white paper: state tests vs NAEP, structural causes, and two concrete national reforms.
Testing Resistance Across Administrations
How Congress, testing companies, state agencies, and unions resisted honest testing under Clinton and Bush.
Federal advocacy — Secretary letter
What the letter to Secretary McMahon argues: four reforms, honesty gaps, international comparisons, and the research behind them.
Two reforms that would change everything
Expand NAEP
Test every student in grades 4, 8, and 12 with the only secure, independently administered national benchmark—so parents get honest, comparable scores.
Independent testing agency
Remove educator control of the assessment process. Secure questions. No selling of prep materials that include real items. Results reported directly to parents.
Read the full case
Our white paper summarizes 37 years of evidence and lays out the policy path in full.
Why reform stalled
A companion paper on resistance under Clinton and Bush: Congress, testing companies, state agencies, and union politics.
Stay informed. Push for honest measurement.
Join the Honest Education Alliance mailing list for research updates and opportunities to support testing reform.