# Presentation: 134416

## The Interagency Education Research InitiativePre-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**

## Presentation Overview

- Describe background & history of IERI
- Review programmatic objectives
- Highlight Distinctive Features of IERI Projects
- Provide an overview of meeting

## 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

## 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

## 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**

## Distinctive Features of IERI ProjectsSample 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)**

## Distinctive bFeatures: Sample Projects

| Project | Scientific Rigor | Scaling Up | Contextual Variation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 
Vanderbilt University
Reading |  R. assignment
 Experimental and  
    ecological validity
 Theoretically 
    derived covariates |  7 schools 
 26 classrooms
 Student N=416
 Fidelity/technology
 Organizational  
    transitions |  Urban schools
  Middle income and   
     low income/free lunch
 Racial/ethnic diversity
 ELL |
| 
Yale University
Science, Math, & Reading |  R.. Assignment
 Pre-post design
 Multi-level &  
    growth modeling
 Theoretically 
    derived covariates |  33 schools and 200  
    classrooms
 Student N=4,000
 5 states 10 states
 School structure
 State standards |  Multi-state/region study
 Rural-urban sample
 Racial/ethnic diversity
 Varying needs for   
    professional development |
| 
University of Texas
Reading |  R. assignment 
 Control groups
 Pre-post design
 Physiological  and  
    psychometric  
    indicators | 6 schools
60 classrooms
Student N= 400
Crowded schools and  
transient populations
Fidelity of implem. |  Urban schools
  Middle income and   
     low income/free lunch
 Racial/ethnic diversity
 ELL
 |

## 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

## 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**