The Interagency Education Research Initiative Pre-Application Meeting for Prospective Grantees

1. The Interagency Education Research InitiativePre-Application Meeting for Prospective Grantees Mark A. Constas, Ph.D. Program Director Interagency Education Research Initiative Institute of Education Sciences U.S. Department of Education Washington, D.C. February 21, 2003

2. Presentation Overview • Describe background & history of IERI • Review programmatic objectives • Highlight Distinctive Features of IERI Projects • Provide an overview of meeting

3. Interagency Education Research Initiative Background and History • IERI is now in fifth year of operation. The first competition was held in 1999 • Approximately $200 million has been invested with an additional $50 million to committed in FY 2003 • Increasing focus on the importance of merging the practice of scaling up with the rigors of scientific inquiry. • IERI Responsive to and extends the work of OSTP’s 1997 PCAST Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education in the United States • IERI is consistent with the aims of No Child Left Behind by supporting research that seeks to improve our scientific understanding of the conditions under which interventions succeed

4. Programmatic Objectives IERI is a program of research that: • Focuses investigative attention on evidence-based interventions that show promise of having a large-scale, sustainable impact on student achievement • Investigates the effectiveness of interventions in complex and varied educational settings • Should produce findings that identify the conditions under which evidence-based interventions may be successfully implemented on a broad scale

5. Distinctive Characteristics of IERI Projects • Scientific Rigor: Merging Science and Practice • Discern causal relationships • Minimize sources of bias • Apply/extend empirically based theories • Scaling up: Complexity and Magnitude of Implementation • Organizational factors • Economic imperatives • Policy mandates • Extensive applications with relatively large samples • Contextual Variation: Mediators of Implementation • Study effects of demographic diversity • Sampling across school types • Merge individual differences approach with system level analysis

6. Distinctive Features of IERI ProjectsSample of Studies • Decoding and Word Recognition • Vanderbilt University (D. Sharp) • Cognitively-Based Teacher Professional Development • Yale University (R. Sternberg & E. Grigorenko) • Early Development of Reading Skills • University of Texas (J. Fletcher & B. Foorman)

7. Distinctive bFeatures: Sample Projects

8. Summary of IERI Research • IERI supported research should be designed to: Produce knowledge that will improve student learning and achievement by studying evidence-based interventions: • As they are implemented in varied and complex educational settings • Applied to diverse student populations • Sustained over significant periods of time • With rigorous methodologies that allow researchers to better understand causal mechanisms

9. Meeting Overview • Focus areas • Daniel Berch • Funding Options • Finbarr Sloane • Program Requirements • Mark Constas • Design Features of Rigorous Research • Chris Schatschneider • Application Procedures • ASI staff • Open Discussion • Participants