New U.S. Commissioner of Education Research addresses Education Policy Forum

At the Education Policy Forum * on March 18, 2005, Barbara Foorman explained the work of the National Center for Education Research (NCER). As the new U.S. Commissioner of Education Research, Commissioner Foorman discussed the strategy of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) ** research program in designing research. In particular, NCER supports rigorous, unbiased research to resolve educational questions and concerns.

Through the refinement of education research and evaluation methods, the NCER will enhance the capacities of non-researchers in the schools to conduct research and evaluate results. As an illustration, Commissioner Foorman described the dilemma that practitioners face in conforming to a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB requires that no more than one percent of students may be excluded from calculations of Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). The Commissioner explained that the NCLB cap on the exclusion of students may not address the mild or moderate cognitive disabilities of students who may never achieve at grade level or graduate high school. Commissioner Foorman suggested that a potential resolution to this dilemma is aligning the developmental paths of these students with criterion-referenced assessment that is appropriate for the developmental level. This “vertical alignment” can be seen to replace the more familiar standardized tests. Vertical alignment, according to the Commissioner, will occur as researchers and practitioners align subject matter content with developmental paths.

In response to a query from the audience, Commissioner Foorman described the IES and NCER concept for building teacher quality. The Commissioner explained that pre-service training can be improved through apprenticeships in the school. As Commissioner Foorman noted, in-service training and professional development are usually centered on content areas. The apprenticeship would be centered on, for example, classroom management and variations in learning style. After completing the apprenticeship, the teacher would be considered fully prepared and on track for attaining highly qualified status. IES will announce a Request for Applications on teacher quality by the summer of 2005.

* The Education Policy Forum is organized and presented monthly at the U.S. Library of Congress by the American Educational Research Association (http://www.aera.net) and the Institute for Educational Leadership (http://www.iel.org).

** The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) was established in 2002 to manage the research, evaluation, and data activities of the U.S. Department of Education. IES replaced the former Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The IES homepage is http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html?src=oc.

Page Updated: April 11, 2005