Education Research Priorities Named

From the November 8, 2010 issue of the Grants Resource Center’s GrantWeek:

At its November 1, 2010 meeting, the National Board for Education Sciences approved research priorities for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the arm of the U.S. Department of Education that works to compile statistics, support research, conduct evaluations, and promote and facilitate the use of scientific evidence. According to the published priorities, IES will sponsor projects that do the following:

• Examine the state of education in the U.S.;
• Develop and evaluate innovative approaches to improving education outcomes;
• Understand the characteristics of high-quality teaching and how better to train current and prospective teachers and to recruit, support, and retain effective teachers;
• Understand the processes of schooling through which education policies, programs, and practices affect student outcomes; and
• Understand classroom, school, and other social contextual factors that moderate the effects of education practices and contribute to their successful implementation and sustainability.

In addition to research, the priorities describe an increased focus on education and training of educators. IES will support “postdoctoral and interdisciplinary doctoral training in the education sciences, providing training to equip education researchers with the skills to conduct rigorous research and effectively engage stakeholders in that research, and conducting training in research design and methods and in the use of longitudinal data.”