Intersocietal Group for Education Research (IGER) letter to Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommitee

September 7, 2004

Honorable Arlen Specter, Chair
Honorable Tom Harkin, Ranking Member
    And Members of Senate Subcommittee on Labor,
    Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations

Dear Senators:

The Intersocietal Group for Education Research (IGER) is a coalition representing a broad range of researchers and educators advocating for the application of high quality research to the resolution of pervasive education problems. IGER believes the following Congressional actions are imperative in the context of the 2005 appropriation:

1. The Education Research, Development and Dissemination program must be funded at the Administration's requested level of $185 million.

2. Appropriation language should be provided that stipulates the level of funding of the national education research centers to be competed by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) from FY 2004 forward at a minimum of $4 million each.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that state and local education agencies use scientifically based research to guide their decisions about which education interventions to adopt for their students. IES is working to provide those answers, but additional resources are needed to fund research that seeks to answer fundamental scientific questions about reading comprehension, math and science education, teacher quality, cognition and effective interventions. To strengthen the education research enterprise, new opportunities are needed for investigator-initiated studies that move the field forward with innovative methodologies and research ideas.

The long-established national education research centers, representing the core of federal research activities in education, require your assistance in the FY 2005 appropriation to sustain its vitality. Language and resources must be provided that assures the centers funded through this program are able to be truly national in scope and have the capacity to work with school systems and policy makers to develop and bring research to bear.

What Have the National Education Research Centers Accomplished?

The federally funded national education research centers are proven producers and disseminators of knowledge that is useful to educators and policy makers. There are many successes achieved by these centers. Following are a few example:

• The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, in Maryland, has been the principal research arm responsible for development of Success for All, a program that is raising achievement in schools serving over one million students. The Center is one of the few resources in the country with a major research emphasis on middle school and high school student achievement.

• The Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, in California, has developed assessment software that is vital to assessment of school improvement efforts; the material is currently in use in over 1,000 schools and in all 50 states.

• The Consortium for Policy Research in Education, a national education research center based in Pennsylvania, has designed innovative teacher pay systems and worked to establish them in over 25 states in order to help retain our best teachers.

Why Are Federal Research Centers Successful?

The national research centers are authorized to address general areas of national need through a comprehensive research program. Among the strengths associated with this mandate is the expectation and capacity to identify and address developing issues within the context of each center's research mission. This flexibility and linkage to practitioners and policy makers ensures that the federal education research program will produce high quality work that is relevant to the education community. By establishing a minimum funding level of $4 million for each newly competed center, Congress will assure that resources are available not only to continue this hugely successful program, but also to initiate new work that is exemplary in terms of the rigorous, scientifically-based research that Congress now expects from the Institute of Education Sciences.

We appreciate your consideration of our request. We look forward to working with you to support and improve the federal education research enterprise.

Sincerely,

American Educational Research Association
American Psychological Association
Consortium of Social Science Organizations
Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Education Knowledge Industry Association
Society for Research in Child Development

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