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Strategic Objective

Research, Evaluation, and Use of Evidence

Strategic Objective

Invest in research and evaluation that builds evidence for education improvement; communicate findings effectively; and drive the use of evidence in decision-making by internal and external stakeholders.

Lead Office: Institute of Education Sciences; Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development; Office of Innovation and Improvement

Themes:

Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services

ED.gov

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Overview
Progress Update

No Data Available

Progress Update

Systemic improvement requires research and evaluation so that decision makers at the national, state, and local levels have reliable evidence to inform their actions. While the Department’s research programs are its primary driver for learning what works, the Department also seeks to build evidence by incorporating grantee-led evaluations into other programs. Requiring that more discretionary grants build on and generate evidence of effectiveness will increase the likelihood that scarce program dollars have a positive impact on student outcomes. A list of evaluations completed in FY 2015, as well as a summary of other relevant upcoming evaluations, can be found in appendix E.

The Department’s Evidence Planning Group (EPG) continues to identify opportunities for discretionary grant programs to use evidence-related priorities or selection criteria in competitions. In FY 2015, a total of eight competitions in OII, OESE, and OPE encouraged evidence-based projects through eligibility requirements, competitive preference priorities, and selection criteria. In addition, nine competitions in OII, OESE, and OPE asked that applicants design evaluations of their proposed projects that will produce evidence. The Department surpassed the FY 2015 performance target for programs rewarding evidence in grant competitions. In addition, the EPG has met with each of the Department’s grant-making offices to discuss appropriate uses of evidence in FY 2016 competitions. The Department projects that over 10 competitions will reward evidence in their FY 2016 competitions.

The metric above tracks the Department’s progress in incentivizing applicants to build on evidence of “what works” and to generate new evidence in the course of their grants. Two other metrics—one related to the WWC and one to ERIC—track the Department’s progress in reviewing studies of education effectiveness against rigorous standards and in making high-quality education research widely available and easily accessible. The Department believes that progress in these metrics will contribute to the information flow that is essential to promoting promising areas of education research and development.

The WWC reviews and summarizes studies of the effectiveness of education interventions. During FY 2015, the WWC surpassed the Department’s target by reviewing more than 600 studies. Reviews of studies submitted by applicants to Department grant competitions contributed to the larger-than-anticipated number of studies reviewed. In addition to its regular reviews of IES-funded research studies, in FY 2015 the WWC also began to review studies produced by the i3 program’s first cohort of grantees. These grantees, originally funded in 2010, began to share their results of the independent evaluations of their projects this past year. The WWC also expanded its capacity to review higher volumes of studies by offering additional reviewer training and awarding a new contract for grant-related study reviews.

Likewise, in FY 2015, ERIC continued to prioritize acquisition of peer-reviewed, full-text education research and secured many new agreements with content providers to enable ERIC to acquire the full text of peer-reviewed research articles supported with FY 2012 or later research funding from IES. This work contributed to surpassing the FY 2015 annual performance target by more than 5,000 full-text, peer-reviewed resources. ERIC also has incorporated a search function that allows users to identify studies in the ERIC database that were reviewed by the WWC and that met standards. In this way, the greater integration of the Department’s WWC and ERIC investments contributes to the “virtuous cycle” of using and producing research evidence.

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

Continuous Improvement of the U.S. Education System

Statement:

Enhance the education system’s ability to continuously improve through better and more widespread use of data, research and evaluation, evidence, transparency, innovation, and technology.

Strategic Objectives

Data Systems and Transparency

Statement:

Facilitate the development of interoperable longitudinal data systems for early learning through employment to enable data-driven, transparent decision-making by increasing access to timely, reliable, and high-value data.

Description:No Data Available

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Privacy

Statement:

Provide all education stakeholders, from early childhood to adult learning, with technical assistance and guidance to help them protect student privacy while effectively managing and using student information.

Description:No Data Available

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Research, Evaluation, and Use of Evidence

Statement:

Description:No Data Available

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Technology and Innovation

Statement:

Accelerate the development and broad adoption of new, effective programs, processes, and strategies, including education technology.

Description:

To achieve the president’s 2020 college attainment goal, the nation’s education system will need to graduate many more college-ready students from high school, ensure they have access to postsecondary education, and support them as they complete their degrees—all while facing resource constraints. When other sectors of the economy need to become better, faster, or more productive, they innovate, often relying on technology for help. The education sector is no different, and the need for innovation—and its benefits—spans grade levels, curricular areas, and student needs.

A 21st-century infrastructure that harnesses modern technological advances and provides easy access to high-speed Internet can serve as a platform for greater innovation in education. Accordingly, the Department will continue to focus on ways to improve schools’ technology infrastructure and effective use of technology. It will also continue to work with Congress to establish a new advanced research projects agency for education that will use directed research and development activities to pursue breakthrough technological innovations in teaching and learning.

Technology holds the potential to expand all students’ opportunities to learn, including by supporting personalized learning experiences, providing dynamic digital content, and delivering more meaningful assessments. Technology can also help districts and schools support teachers in becoming more effective and better connected to the tools, resources, and expertise students need and help them meet more rigorous college- and career-ready standards. Technology can also help schools by providing students and school library media specialists with increased access to academic tools and other resource-sharing networks. Technology can also help schools by providing students and school library media specialists with increased access to academic tools and other resource-sharing networks. Technology-enabled instructional and assessment systems will be pivotal to improving student learning and generating data that can be used to continuously improve the education system at all levels. Innovative technology must be matched by innovative educational practices to maximize its potential to improve learning and instruction for all students, and it must be accessible to all students, including students with disabilities. Leadership is essential to ensure that innovative applications are disseminated and brought to scale.

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Agency Priority Goals

FY 14-15: Enable evidence-based decision making

Statement:

By September 30, 2015, the percentage of select new[1] (non-continuation) competitive grant dollars that reward evidence will increase by 70%.

[1] “New competitive grant dollars that reward evidence” includes all dollars awarded based on the existence of at least “evidence of promise” in support of a project, per the framework in the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (34 CFR Part 75). Consideration of such evidence appears through: eligibility threshold (e.g., in the Investing in Innovation program); absolute priority; competitive priority (earning at least one point for it); or selection criteria (earning at least one point for it). The percentage is calculated compared to the total new grant dollars awarded.

Description:

GOAL OVERVIEW

Through its mix of grants, contracts, and internal analytic work, the Department of Education (ED) will support the use of research methods and rigorous study designs that provide evidence that is as robust as possible and fit for the purpose. This goal will track whether ED is increasing its internal capacity to make competitive grant awards based on the existence of (and amount of) evidence in support of projects, where appropriate.

KEY BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES

The process to collect data and track progress against the goal is still under development, and using evidence to award competitive grants entails a shift in culture and capacity building across ED to do it well. Additionally, goal targets are based on reasonable projections about which competitive grant programs may make new awards in this fiscal year, but the actual dollar amount awarded will depend on final appropriations amounts and other funding decisions and trade-offs. Grantees vary in their comfort with and understanding of evaluation and use of evidence, yet ED has limited resources to support grantees in conducting rigorous evaluations that would produce evidence of effectiveness.

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

There is an increasing emphasis among stakeholders on the importance of using evidence to support government program funding decisions, and ED regularly engages the field on this topic. A number of outside organizations have convened experts to discuss how to encourage such decisions. In addition, philanthropic and congressional actors prioritized using evidence to support decision-making and have encouraged the field to do the same. Finally, ED has worked with the National Science Foundation to develop a common evidence framework around which to organize research investments and grants. Indeed, ED is considered a leader on the issue among federal agencies, and external groups are eager for ED to deepen and broaden its efforts.

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