Blog

The federal Institute of Education Sciences (IES), housed under the U.S. Department of Education, has played a critical role in advancing high-quality education research and data for more than twenty years. Earlier this year, the Trump Administration laid off nearly all IES staff and canceled numerous research contracts. Subsequently, the Department of Education published a formal request for information on redesigning IES.

Last week, America Forward submitted public comments to the Department of Education that recognized the urgent need for a reconstituted IES as well as the opportunities to improve IES’s impact moving forward. Our comments drew on the America Forward Coalition’s long engagement in efforts to support and bolster IES, as well as Coalition members’ deep experience participating in and facilitating rigorous, evidence-based innovation and improvement.

Our comments emphasized the following specific points:

• Emphasize action-oriented, practitioner-engaged, quicker-turnaround research. IES must deepen its engagement with practitioners – including emphasizing practitioners as lead grantees – to accelerate the systematic development, adaptation, and scale-up of promising interventions should shift from its historic emphasis on funding researchers as lead recipients. We also support setting clearer pathways from R&D to adoption and scalability, such as by establishing a National Advanced Center for the Development of Education (NCADE) at IES. These efforts should incorporate earlier-stage, formative research, such as pilots, feasibility studies, implementation research, and rapid cycle evaluation.

• Address key gaps in the research base. IES should, for instance, prioritize the research and development of valid and reliable assessments that will create a more comprehensive and complete picture of students’ strengths, successes, and areas for growth. IES should also consider broadening its scope beyond its historic emphasis on K-12 projects to increase investment in strategies that support effective transitions to postsecondary learning and careers.
• Strengthen dissemination, technical assistance, and data infrastructure. We recommend expediting the What Works Clearinghouse evidence review process, aligning clearinghouses across federal agencies, and engaging with practitioners to strengthen dissemination of evidence-based strategies. We also encourage the Department to pursue deeper, more systematic efforts with practitioners to enhance technical assistance, such as the Regional Educational Laboratories. In addition, IES should take opportunities to expand support for data linkages across early learning, K-12, postsecondary, and workforce systems, as well as public benefits systems.

Across the board, America Forward strongly supports efforts to strengthen the impact of IES, and urges the Department to invest in rebuilding IES’s capacity as expeditiously as possible to meet the critical needs in the field, including for the administration of key national surveys. A renewed IES will be essential to address students’ emerging needs, reverse declining achievement levels, and advance evidence-based approaches from early learning through postsecondary and career education.