Newsgroups: bit.listserv.erl-l
Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 1992 23:39:00 CDT
From:         P30JWP1@NIU.BITNET
Subject:      OERI: Budget plan for achievement (148 lines)

The following is provided by the Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.  Please feel
welcome to distribute.

                         THE PRESIDENT'S
                     FISCAL YEAR 1993 BUDGET
                             FOR THE
         OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH  AND IMPROVEMENT

                  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

SYSTEMIC REFORM: RAISING ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS  FOR ALL STUDENTS

One of OERI's goals is to raise the achievement of each child.
Based on research and the study of effective practice, we believe
that there are effective ways to improve the performance of all
children.  The nation's investment in education data collection,
research, and improving practice has demonstrated that student
performance will improve under certain conditions: when
expectations for students and teachers are high and clear; when
those expectations are consistently reinforced; when students and
teachers are challenged and motivated to meet high expectations,
not merely through exhortation but through curricular demands
that provide all students with opportunity to learn; and when
parents are actively involved in supporting their children's
academic progress.

OERI is not alone in this belief.  The National Council on
Education Standards and Testing (NCEST) has determined that the
development of high national standards tied to assessments is
desirable and feasible.  NCEST concluded that national standards
and a system of assessments are desirable and feasible mechanisms
for raising expectations, revitalizing instruction, and
rejuvenating education reform efforts for all American schools
and all students.  In response to this agreement-reached by
members of Congress, Governors, representatives of the
Administration, practitioners, researchers, and State policy
makers-OERI proposes to support State efforts to raise the
performance of all students.  OERI will support projects to
develop and adopt curriculum frameworks, adopt standards, develop
teacher training programs, train teachers, select instructional
materials, describe specifications of textbooks that publishers
must follow, determine instructional methods, and adopt
appropriate assessments.  When included in a systemic State
program, each of these activities is important for improved
student performance.

The OERI FY 1993 budget requests $25 million to support State
development of comprehensive, systemic reform.  OERI will support
the development by States of new curriculum frameworks, based on
research about what children can learn at different ages.  It
will sponsor research on new forms of assessment to measure
student performance against the world class standards and
curriculum frameworks.  OERI will also support research that
analyzes how schools can improve the achievement of "at-risk"
children and examines how other major industrialized nations
shape world-class standards.

                 FY 1993 Request ($ in Millions)

Grant to States and Multistate
Consortia for Systemic Reforms................$15.0

Research Grants for the
Development of Improved
Performance Assessment..........................5.0

Support for Research and
Development Efforts to Help
At-Risk Students and Study
Standards, Curriculum
Frameworks and Assessments......................5.0

Total.........................................$25.0

GRANTS TO STATES AND  MULTISTATE CONSORTIA FOR  SYSTEMIC REFORMS

A total of $15 million will support State efforts to develop
curriculum frameworks.  The curriculum frameworks in each State
will become the starting point for comprehensive coordinated
school improvement.  A State's (or State consortium's) curriculum
frameworks, shaped by its own teachers and scholars, will become
the basis for improving instruction, classroom naterials, teacher
education, teacher certification, staff development, and
assessment.

This grant program for State and multi-State efforts will allow
States the flexibility they need to design activities most suited
to their current reform efforts.  Different States are at
different points on the course to systemic reform.  Some States
have adopted standards; others have adopted standards and
developed curricula frameworks reflecting those standards; still
others have assessment programs that, although extensive, are not
connected to standards and curricula frameworks.  In some cases,
States have adopted standards but have not trained teachers to
teach to those standards.

RESEARCH GRANTS FOR THE  DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED  PERFORMANCE
ASSESSMENTS

The strong consensus that new forms of assessments should be
employed in the national system of assessment is not matched by
our capacity to use such forms.  Specific examples of
"performance" and "authentic" items must be created for each
subject, each concept to be learned, and each level of
understanding.  And to ensure comparability, validity,
reliability and fairness, research studies need to be carried
out.  While States undertake assessment development and
implementation, some of which work we seek to support in both FY
1992 and FY 1993 through FIE, research can use this work to study
the issues critical to the development of a national system of
testing as proposed in the NCEST report of January 1992.

The work proposed will build upon on-going assessment work
supported by OERI in the Center on Assessment, Evaluation, and
Testing.  Results from such research will be shared with the
States as they continue their development and implementation of
new assessments.

Support for Research and  Development Efforts to Help At-Risk
Students and Study  of International Uses of  Standards,
Curriculum Frameworks and Assessments

In FY 1993, OERI plans to call upon researchers it supports to
help narrow the gap between what we know about how to improve
teaching and learning for at-risk children and the actual
policies and practices used by teachers, principals, school board
members, and others engaged in the everyday work of schools.
Already in place is the Regional Educational Lab focus of a
portion of its funds on the education of the disadvantaged. A
number of the National Research and Development Centers-the
Center for Research on Effective Schooling for Disadvantaged
Students, the Center on Education in the Inner Cities, the Center
on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning, the
National Center on Adult Literacy, and the Center on the Gifted
and Talented-are primarily focused on at-risk students and nearly
all of the remaining centers support major projects dedicated to
identifying effective practices for the at risk.  ERIC
Clearinghouses and various data collections pay particular
attention to these students.

In FY 1993, $5 million will support focussed research and
development that identifies how schools can improve the
achievement of "at-risk" children, drawing upon the on-going
work.  In addition, we will support research that examines how
other major industrialized nations develop their own world-class
standards and address the teaching and learning of all students.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU