Department of Education

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES

Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request

CONTENTS

Page

Appropriations Language.............................................................................................................. 1

Analysis of Language Provisions and Changes............................................................................ 2

Obligations by Object Classification.............................................................................................. 3

Appropriation, Adjustments, and Transfers................................................................................... 4

Summary of Changes ................................................................................................................... 5

Authorizing Legislation.................................................................................................................. 6

Appropriations History................................................................................................................... 7

Significant Items in FY 2024 Appropriations Reports ................................................................... 8

Summary of Request .................................................................................................................... 9 

Activities:

Research, development, and dissemination...........................................................................11

Statistics ................................................................................................................................. 26

Regional educational laboratories ..........................................................................................41

Assessment............................................................................................................................48

Research in special education................................................................................................58

Statewide longitudinal data systems ......................................................................................65

Special education studies and evaluations.............................................................................71

IES program administration....................................................................................................75

Account Summary Table.............................................................................................................77
INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES

1 

Appropriations Language

For necessary expenses for the Institute of Education Sciences as authorized by section 

208 of the Department of Education Organization Act and carrying out activities authorized by 

the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act, section 208 of the 

Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002, and section 664 of the Individuals with 

Disabilities Education Act, $815,455,000, which shall remain available through September 30, 

2026: 1 Provided, That funds available to carry out section 208 of the Educational Technical 

Assistance Act may be used to link Statewide elementary and secondary data systems with 

early childhood, postsecondary, and workforce data systems, or to further develop such 

systems:2 Provided further, That up to $6,000,000 of the funds available to carry out section 208 

of the Educational Technical Assistance Act may be used for awards to public or private 

organizations or agencies to support activities to improve data coordination, quality, and use at 

the local, State, and national levels.3 

NOTES 

A full-year 2024 appropriation for this account was not enacted at the time the Budget was prepared; therefore, 

the Budget assumes this account is operating under the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2024 and Other Extensions 

Act (Division A of Public Law 118-15, as amended). The amounts included for 2024 reflect the annualized level 

provided by the continuing resolution.

Each language provision that is followed by a footnote reference is explained in the Analysis of Language 

Provisions and Changes document that follows the appropriations language.
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2 

Analysis of Language Provisions and Changes

Language Provision Explanation

1 ..., $815,455,000, which shall remain 

available through September 30, 2026. 

This language provides 2-year availability of 

funds for the account. This language is 

needed to facilitate the planning of long-term 

programs of research and to accommodate 

cyclical surveys and assessments.

2...Provided, That funds available to carry out 

section 208 of the Educational Technical 

Assistance Act may be used to link Statewide 

elementary and secondary data systems with 

early childhood, postsecondary, and 

workforce data systems, or to further develop 

such systems:

This language provides the authority to use 

funds to expand Statewide longitudinal data 

systems to include postsecondary and 

workforce information and information on 

early childhood.

3...Provided further, That up to $6,000,000 of 

the funds available to carry out section 208 of 

the Educational Technical Assistance Act 

may be used for awards to public or private 

organizations or agencies to support activities 

to improve data coordination, quality, and use 

at the local, State, and national levels.

This language provides the authority to make 

Statewide longitudinal data systems awards 

to agencies and organizations, in addition to 

State educational agencies, to further the 

purposes of the program.
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3 

Obligations by Object Classification

(dollars in thousands)

Object class number Object Class

2023

Actual

2024

Annualized

CR

2025

Request 

Change 

from 2024 

to 2025

11.10 Full-time permanent $26,923 $33,098 $36,764 +$3,666

11.31 Full-time temporary 3,003 0 0 0

11.32 Part-time 243 152 158 +6

11.33 Consultants 55 0 0 0

11.51 Overtime 4 0 0 0

11.52 Awards 425 95 295 +200

11.8 Other Compensation 0 0 0 0

Subtotal Row

 Compensation subtotal 30,653 33,345 37,217 +3,872

12.00 Benefits 9,101 12,357 13,711 +1,354

13.1 Benefits for former personnel 0 0 0 0

Subtotal Ro

 Comp/benefits subtotal 9,101 12,357 13,711 +1,354

21.00 Travel 227 152 195 +43

23.10 Rental payments to GSA 2,544 2,621 2,129 -492

23.31 Communications 0 7 7 0

23.32 Postage/fees 1 2 2 0

Subtotal Row

 Subtotal 23 2,545 2,630 2,138 -492

24.00 Printing & reproduction 0 5 5 0

25.1 Advisory and assistance services 0 0 0 0

25.21 Other services 651 607 829 +222

25.22 Training/tuition/contracts 115 166 175 +9

25.30 

Goods/services from Federal 

sources 1,354 1,169 1,722 +553

25.40 Operations/maint of facilities

25.71 Operations/maint of equipment

25.72 IT services/contracts 17,195 23,009 24,798 +1,789

Subtotal Row

 Subtotal 25 19,315 24,951 27,524 +2,573

26.00 Supplies 4 14 14 0

31.10 IT equipment/software 23 41 41 0

31.30 Other Equipment 0 5 5 0

Subtotal Row

 Subtotal 31 23 46 46 0

32.00 Building Alterations 2 0 0 0

Total Row

Total, Obligations 61,870 73,500 80,850 +7,350
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4 

Appropriation, Adjustments, and Transfers

(dollars in thousands)

Appropriation/Adjustments/Transfers 2023 2024 2025 

Discretionary:

Discretionary Appropriation $807,605 $807,605 $815,455

Total, discretionary appropriation 807,605 807,605 815,455
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Summary of Changes

(dollars in thousands)

2024 $807,605

2025 815,455

Net change +7,850

Increases: 2024 base

Change 

from base

Increase for National Assessment Governing Board to fund cost 

of living adjustments for staff salaries and expenses, including 

additional staff support. 

$7,799 +$500 

Increase for Program Administration to support staff levels and 

provide resources necessary for IES to deliver on its statutory 

and regulatory mandates.

73,500 +7,350

Subtotal, increases +7,850
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6 

Authorizing Legislation

(dollars in thousands)

Activity

2024 

Authorized

2024

Annualized CR

2025 

Authorized

2025

Request

Research and Statistics:

 Research, development, and dissemination (ESRA, Title I, parts 

A, B, and D, except section 174) 00F

1

,1F

2 $245,000 To be determined1,2 $245,000

 : Statistics (ESRA, Title I, part C) 01,2 121,500 To be determined 1,2 121,500

Regional educational laboratories (ESRA, section 174) 02 58,733 To be determined 2 58,733

Assessment:

Assessment: National assessment (NAEPAA, section 303) 02 185,000 To be determined 2 185,000

Assessment: National Assessment Governing Board (NAEPAA, 

section 302) 02 7,799 To be determined 2 8,299

Research in special education (ESRA, part E) 02F

3 64,255 To be determined 64,255

Statewide longitudinal data systems (ETAA, section 208) 02 38,500 To be determined 2 38,500

Special education studies and evaluations (IDEA, section 664) 03 13,318 To be determined 3 13,318

Program Administration 02 73,500 To be determined 2 80,850

Total appropriation 807,605 815,455

Portion of request subject to reauthorization 807,605 815,455

1 Section 194(a) of the Education Sciences Reform Act provides that not more than the lesser of 2 percent of the amount appropriated to carry out the Act 

(excluding amount appropriated for the Regional Educational Laboratories) or $1,000 thousand shall be made available for the National Board of Education 

Sciences and that the National Center for Education Statistics shall be provided not less than its fiscal year 2002 amount ($85,000 thousand).

2 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2024 is expected through appropriations language. 3 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2011. Reauthorization for FY 2024 is expected through appropriations language.
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Appropriations History

(dollars in thousands)

Year

Budget 

Estimate 

to Congress

House 

Allowance

Senate 

Allowance Appropriation

20163F

1 $675,883 $409,956 $562,978 $618,015

20174F

2 693,818 536,049 612,525 605,267

20185F

3 616,839 605,267 600,267 613,462

20196F

4 521,563 613,462 615,462 615,462

20207F

5 521,563 650,000 615,462 623,462

20218F

6 565,440 630,462 635,462 642,462

2021 Supplemental, CRRSA Act 

(P.L. 116-260) 9F

7 0 0 0 28,000

2021 Mandatory Supplemental,

ARP Act (P.L. 117-02) 10F

8 0 0 0 100,000

202211F

9 642,462 762,465 814,492 737,021

202312F

10 662,516 844,075 831,395 807,605

202413F

11 870,868 707,372 793,106 807,605

2025 815,455

1 The levels for House and Senate allowances reflect action on the regular annual 2016 appropriations bill, which 

proceeded in the 114th Congress only through the House Committee and Senate Committee.

2 The levels for the House and Senate allowances reflect Committee action on the regular annual 2017 

appropriations bill; the Appropriation reflects the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017.

3 The level for the House allowance reflects floor action on the Omnibus appropriation bill; the Senate allowance 

reflects Committee action on the regular annual 2018 appropriations bill; the Appropriation reflects the Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2018 (P.L. 115-141). 4 The levels for the House and Senate Allowance reflect Committee action on the regular annual 2019 appropriations 

bill; the Appropriation reflects enactment of the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and 

Education Appropriations Act, 2019 (P.L. 115-245). 5 The Senate Allowance reflects the Chairman’s mark; the Appropriation reflects the Further Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116-94). 6 The level for the Senate Allowance reflects the Chairman’s mark; the Appropriation reflects Division H of the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260). 7 The Appropriation reflects supplemental funds from Division M of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 

(P.L. 116-260). 8 The Appropriation reflects the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-02). 9 The House allowance reflects floor action on the FY 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act; the Senate allowance 

reflects the Chairman’s mark; and the Appropriation reflects H.R. 2471 / Public Law 117-103 Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2022. 10 The House allowance reflects floor action on the FY 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act; the Senate allowance 

reflects the Chairman’s mark; and the Appropriation reflects H.R. 2617 / Public Law 117-328 Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2023.

11 The House allowance reflects Subcommittee action, and the Senate allowance reflects Committee action on the 

regular annual 2024 appropriations bill. The Appropriation reflects the annualized continuing resolution level.
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8 

Significant Items in FY 2024 Appropriations Reports

Institute for Education Sciences (IES) Operating Plan

Senate: The Committee is aware IES sought expert assistance in requesting National 

Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics (NASEM) to ‘‘recommend 

a portfolio of activities and products for NCES, review developments in the 

acquisition and use of data, consider current and future priorities, and suggest 

desirable changes’’, which resulted in the publication of the ‘‘A Vision and 

Roadmap for Education Statistics’’. The Committee believes the Secretary, 

Commissioner and Director of IES should continue to support NCES in 

independently developing, producing, and disseminating statistics pursuant to 

recommendations of the NASEM report. The Commissioner, and, as applicable, 

Secretary and Director are directed to include in the required operating plan 

actions taken since the report’s release and future actions and associated 

timeline to fully implement related recommendations. 

Response: The Department will comply as directed.

Research and Development Investment (Assessment)

Senate: The Committee requests that the fiscal year 2025 CJ and fiscal year 2024 

operating plan describe implemented and planned strategies for cost efficiencies 

and necessary research and development projects.

Response: Please see page 52 of this chapter (under the heading “Assessment”). 

NCES Administrative Expenses

Senate: The Committee directs the Department, IES and NCES to work together to 

provide in the fiscal year 2025 and future CJs, as well as the fiscal year 2024 

operating plan the amount for NCES administrative expenses supported by this 

program administration appropriation.

Response: For fiscal year 2024, the Department expects that NCES administrative expenses 

will be supported by $43.0 million from the IES program administration 

appropriation.

Administrative and Staffing Information

Senate: Within 30 days after enactment of this act and each quarter thereafter, the 

Committee directs the IES Director and NCES Commissioner to submit 

administrative and staffing plans for their respective centers outlining staffing 

ceilings by national center, the factors considered in allocating staffing ceilings by 

national center, actual full-time equivalent employment (FTE) by national center, 

and an explanation by national center for FTE changes from the preceding 

quarter. Reports providing sufficient information on each of these required 

elements will satisfy the Committee’s staffing report directive under the Program 

Administration account.

Response: The Department will comply as directed. 
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Summary of Request

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) supports research, data collection and analysis 

activities as well as assessments of student academic achievement and progress. IES serves 

as a national leader in developing standards for education research, improving the use of 

evidence in grant competitions, and reducing burden and improving the quality of evaluation and 

research using administrative data. The Administration requests $815.5 million for this account 

for fiscal year 2025, $7.9 million more than the fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the 

fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The FY 2025 Request includes a rescission of $10 million from 

unobligated FY 2024 SLDS funds expected to be carried over into FY 2025 and a rescission of 

$15 million from unobligated FY 2024 RELs funds expected to be carried over into FY 2025. 

The Administration requests $245.0 million for Research, Development, and Dissemination,

level with the fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The 

investment in research is important because high-quality information about effective practices 

can help improve both student outcomes and the return on the public investment in education at 

the Federal, State, and local levels. These funds would support building a high-quality evidence 

base for what works in education, dissemination efforts, and the establishment of a research 

program dedicated specifically to developing and disseminating innovative, cutting-edge 

practices and tools.

For Statistics, which provides funds to support the collection, analysis, and reporting of data 

related to education at all levels, the Administration requests $121.5 million, level with a fiscal 

year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The National Center for 

Education Statistics collects, analyzes, and disseminates education statistics at all levels, from 

preschool through postsecondary and adult education, including statistics on international 

education activities.

The request includes $58.7 million for the Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs), level 

with the fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. These 

funds would support a network of 10 regional laboratories that provide expert advice, including 

training and technical assistance, to help States and school districts apply proven research 

findings in their school improvement efforts. 

A total of $193.3 million is requested for Assessment, including $185.0 million for the National 

Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), level with a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR 

based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation, and $8.3 million for the National Assessment 

Governing Board (NAGB), $0.5 million more than a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on 

the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The request would support the schedule of assessments 

approved on by NAGB on November 16, 2023, as well as research and development 

investments to improve assessment quality while reducing future program costs, cost of living 

adjustments for NAGB salaries and expenses and additional staff support for NAGB operations. 

The request provides $64.3 million for Research in Special Education, level with the fiscal 

year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. These funds would 

support research intended to improve the developmental outcomes and school readiness of 

infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities; improve education outcomes in core 

subject areas for children with disabilities; improve social and behavioral outcomes; and help 

adolescents with disabilities attain college- and career-readiness.
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The $38.5 million requested for Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, level with the fiscal 

year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation, would support 

continuation costs of competitive grant awards to States to foster the design, development, 

implementation, and use of longitudinal data systems. 

The request provides a $13.3 million for Special Education Studies and Evaluations, to 

support a range of evaluations that are designed to provide information on effective programs 

and practices to inform guidance for educators and parents. 

Finally, the request provides a $80.9 million for IES Program Administration, $7.4 million more 

than the fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation, to support 

administrative expenses necessary for IES to carry out authorized activities. Expenses include 

IES pay and non-pay, as well as the IES share of centralized support costs such as rent and 

enterprise cybersecurity.
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Research, development, and dissemination

(Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Parts A, B, and D, except section 174)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined 14F

1

Budget Authority:

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

$245,000 $245,000 0

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Research, Development, and Dissemination (RDD) program funds core activities of the 

Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which is authorized by the Education Sciences Reform 

Act of 2002 (ESRA). IES activities help expand knowledge and understanding of education from 

early childhood through the postsecondary education level, as well as career and technical and 

adult education. IES’s programs and products provide parents, caregivers, educators, students, 

researchers, policymakers, and communities with reliable information about the condition and 

performance of our education system, educational practices that support learning, increase 

educational opportunities, and improve academic achievement, and the effectiveness of Federal 

education programs and related interventions.

IES includes four national centers: the National Center for Education Research (NCER), the 

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Center for Education Evaluation 

and Regional Assistance (NCEE), and the National Center for Special Education Research 

(NCSER). The RDD program funds NCER and NCEE, as well as the National Board for 

Education Sciences, which is composed of private sector leaders as well as researchers and 

educators who are charged with approving priorities and peer review procedures and generally 

providing guidance to IES. 

NCER conducts sustained programs of scientifically rigorous research that build an evidence 

base in education to drive better decisions and lead to more effective practice. Some activities 

within NCER are organized around research topic areas, such as early learning, reading and 

writing, teacher effectiveness and pedagogy, education systems and policies; and mathematics 

and science education. Others are focused on addressing critical problems of practice identified 

by education stakeholders, such as our Using Longitudinal Data to Support State Policymaking 

program. Since its authorization in 2002, IES has built a diverse NCER research portfolio that 

includes field-initiated research projects, education research training projects, field- initiated 

evaluations of State and local programs and policies, and advancements in statistical and 

research methodology. NCER also funds research training programs to help develop a steady 

supply of researchers dedicated to finding solutions to problems in education. Since 2002, 

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action.
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Research, development, and dissemination

12

NCER has supported more than 2,200 individuals in acquiring relevant and rigorous skills 

across our training investments, many of whom are currently engaged in research in education.

NCEE supports a wide range of activities in the areas of evaluation, technical assistance, and 

dissemination. The Center conducts evaluations of the implementation and impact of key 

Federal education programs through both traditional and quick-turnaround studies and serves 

as a standards and validation body for education evaluations. A portion of funding used to 

support NCEE program evaluations comes from other programs (e.g., the Special Education 

Studies and Evaluations program) and is not part of the RDD request. 

NCEE is also responsible for translating research findings into information that is accessible to 

education practitioners and for enhancing the use of evidence by policymakers and practitioners 

through the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), the Education Resources Information Center 

(ERIC), and the National Library of Education (NLE). These programs work with NCES, NCER, 

and NCSER to promote and make accessible the results of their work. Funding for the WWC, 

ERIC, and NLE is part of the RDD request.

Examples of how research supported with RDD funding is leading to a better understanding of 

the needs of learners and improving outcomes for these learners include:

Investments in understanding how pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students learn early 

mathematics has generated high quality evidence that is being scaled and used across the

nation to ensure that our youngest learners come to school with strong numerical skills:

• Building Blocks, an intervention developed with NSF funding and systematically tested in 

multiple contexts with NCER funding,15F

1 is a cornerstone of the Boston Public Schools 

pre-K program, and is now being incorporated into DCPS’s early childhood program. 

• Another early mathematics program (Pre-K Math) tested and adapted for use with a 

broad range of learners with different backgrounds with IES funding has strong evidence 

of effectiveness at scale. This intervention has narrowed the achievement gap and is 

now being expanded for use with young Native American learners in the west/southwest 

with EIR funding. A recent WWC Evidence Snapshot16F

2 summarizes the evidence for this 

intervention.17F

3

Investments in developing the science of reading, building high-quality interventions and 

assessments based on that science, and generating evidence of the impact of these 

interventions on reading outcomes:

• NCER investments18F

4 into statistical software development have enabled automated 

measurement of oral reading fluency that accounts for the reader’s reading speed and 

accuracy but also incorporates the similarity between sentences in a sample passage. 

This work builds on NCER’s earlier investment into Stan, a general-purpose data 

1 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWc/InterventionReport/733 2 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/EvidenceSnapshot/732 3https://prekmath.wested.org/

4 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=3410 
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Research, development, and dissemination

13

science toolset that is used widely outside of education, including in predictive models 

developed by leading technology companies.19F

1

Investments in teaching and learning reading in late elementary and early secondary school are 

transforming outcomes for adolescent learners:

• Mississippi is using an intervention named STARI (the Strategic Adolescent Reading 

Intervention). Designed for use with adolescents reading two to three grade levels below 

their grade level, STARI was developed and tested with funding from NCER.20F

2 Its use is 

being expanded with funding from EIR. STARI is a member of NCER’s LEARN 

Network.21F

3 The intervention is now being adapted to support wide use and scaling.22F4

• The principles that underlie this intervention – and other practices that support literacy 

outcomes for older learners – are synthesized and summarized in Providing Reading 

Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 (March 2022).23F

5 These practices draw heavily 

from the two decades of research that NCER and NCSER invested in supporting reading 

outcomes for learners after 4th grade. The Mississippi Department of Education has 

asked REL-Southeast to record their trainings for teachers that describe how to 

instantiate the practices in their daily instruction and are planning to broadcast the 

trainings widely. A summary of the REL’s work to translate IES-generated science is 

available here: Mississippi Improving Adolescent Literacy Partnership - Where We Are 

Now.24F

6

Investments in evidence-building about the impact of early college high school models has led 

to the broad adoption of the model and college degrees for thousands of students:

• Over seventeen years ago, NCER funded a rigorous experimental study of the impact of 

the model.25F

7 Today, that study continues and is still funded by IES grants.26F8 This 

research, and the research of others supported by IES, has demonstrated the positive 

outcomes that occur when students participate in early college. The research findings 

have contributed to the expansion of early college, leading to thousands of additional 

students getting college degrees. For example, the team responsible for developing 

Massachusetts’ model had regular conversations with the research team and 

consistently referenced their work as they were thinking about how to develop their 

approach.27F

9

1 https://mc-stan.org/ 2 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=990 3 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=5826 4 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=990

5 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/PracticeGuide/29 6 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/southeast/Blog/107458 7 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=211

8 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=5844 9 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=211
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NCER/IES-funded research has also contributed to solving policy-related needs of districts and 

states: 

• A NCER funded research project sought solutions to the problem of under identification 

and undercounting of the number of students experiencing homelessness in their district. 

The project identified four strategies that districts can use to improve their data 

describing this population – including monitoring student residential addresses, 

acknowledging homelessness states of siblings among intact families, ensuring that 

families share information throughout the year, and proactively engaging with families

who were identified as experiencing homelessness the prior year.

• Another project led to the development of free, open-source instruments that measure 

the self-reported social and emotional competencies of students in grades 5-12. These 

instruments are available in Spanish and are used across the Nation.

Investments in education technology have transformed teaching and learning to improve 

learner outcomes: 

• IES supported the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Cognitive Tutor® Algebra I 

(CTAI) curriculum (now called MATHia)28F

1 on mathematics achievement when the 

curriculum is implemented at scale—that is, when it is implemented across diverse 

school populations and conditions and with no more support than schools would have 

access to if they had selected Cognitive Tutor as their algebra curriculum on their own. A 

central component of the Cognitive Tutor is an automated computer-based tutor that 

provides individualized instruction to address students’ specific needs. The 

individualization is built into the software and is facilitated by detailed computational 

models of student thinking in algebra. The results from the evaluation29F

2 showed a 

positive effect for CTAI for high school students after the second year of implementing 

the curriculum, equivalent to moving a student from the 50th percentile to the 58th 

percentile on the post test. IES also supported the development of tools and processes30F

3

to facilitate collaboration with researchers interested in conducting research using 

MATHia.31F

4

• SELweb is a web-based direct assessment of four specific skills – emotion recognition, 

social perspective taking, social problem solving, and self-control. It is available for use 

with elementary school students in grades K-332F

5 and 4-633F6 with a middle school version34F7

currently under development. The SEL Quest Digital Platform35F

8 is a NCER funded project

under development to support school-based implementation of SELweb and other social 

1 https://www.carnegielearning.com/solutions/math/mathia/ 2 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1024233 3 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=4705

4 https://www.carnegielearning.com/solutions/math/mathia/ 5 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=1139 6 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=1854 7 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=4450 8 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=5736 
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Research, development, and dissemination

15

and emotional learning (SEL) assessments with an instrument library and a reporting 

dashboard for educators.36F

1

Funding levels for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $195,877

2021 197,877

2022 204,877

2023 245,000

2024 Annualized CR 245,000

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $245.0 million for the RDD program, level with

a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation, to support 

ongoing research and evaluation activities. The RDD program identifies effective strategies for 

improving student learning in early childhood, K−12, postsecondary, and adult education, and it 

disseminates this information to policymakers and practitioners. RDD funds support key 

activities in IES, including those administered by NCER and NCEE. 

Accelerate, Transform, and Scale (ATS) Initiative: 

In the Explanatory Statement accompanying the fiscal year 2023 Consolidated Appropriations 

Act, Congress directed IES to fund quick-turnaround high-reward, scalable solutions intended to 

improve education outcomes for all students. To fulfill this directive, IES’s Accelerate, 

Transform, and Scale (ATS) initiative will support advanced education research and 

development (R&D) to create scalable solutions to improve education outcomes for all learners 

and eliminate persistent achievement and attainment gaps. ATS will pilot efforts modeled on the 

advanced research projects agencies (ARPAs) found throughout the Federal government. To 

advance ARPA-style efforts in education, the ATS initiative will support new activities that 

emphasize creating scalable, high impact solutions, such as going from idea to prototype and 

preparing existing tools, techniques, and products with evidence of effectiveness for scaling.

Of the funds requested for fiscal year 2025, the Administration proposes to allocate 

$52.7 million for new and continuing investments dedicated specifically to developing and 

disseminating innovative, cutting-edge practices and tools.

In fiscal year 2024, NCER launched a re-imagined Transformative Research in the Education 

Sciences program, that invited applications from partnerships between researchers, industry 

professionals, and education agencies to propose transformative solutions to intractable 

education problems leveraging advances in technology combined with research insights from 

the learning sciences. With a short turnaround and a required partnership of researchers, 

product developers, and educators, NCER received a smaller than anticipated number of 

applications to that competition and therefore adjusted planned year one expenditures. In fiscal 

1 https://xsel-labs.com/assessments/selweb/ 
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year 2025, however, NCER anticipates that the competition will be open longer and that the 

number of applications, both resubmissions and new applications, will increase.

NCER plans to launch a new competition “From Seedlings to Scale” (S2S) that will invite 

applications to generate innovative approaches to addressing education challenges within a 

focused topic area. NCER anticipates funding the initial phase of at least twelve seedlings with 

$12.0 million in fiscal year 2024. In fiscal year 2025, NCER plans to award $12.0 million to a 

new cohort of seedlings within a second focused topic area as well as $16.5 million to support 

phase 2 of a subset of the seedlings awarded in fiscal year 2024. 

IES established SEERNet in fiscal year 2021 as a digital learning platforms network designed to 

support efficient, relevant research at scale. In fiscal year 2023 NCER invited a second round of 

applications for research teams to be awarded in fiscal year 2024. NCER anticipates making 8 

new awards in fiscal year 2024 and in fiscal year 2025 NCER will provide continuation funding 

for these applications.

NCER plans to award $2.0 million for a new R&D Center under the ATS initiative in fiscal year 

2024. This new center will provide national leadership and carrying out a focused program of 

research investigating how generative AI is being used in classrooms across the nation. This 

R&D Center will develop and test innovative uses of this technology and will establish best 

practices for evidence building about generative AI in education that not only address the 

effectiveness of the technology for learning, but also consider issues of bias, fairness, 

transparency, trust and safety.

ATS Planning Table37F

1

(dollars in thousands)

Program 2024 2025

Transformative Research (305T)

305T FY 24 Cohort $3,750 $3,750

305T FY 25 Cohort 0 12,500

Subtotal 3,750 16,250

Seedlings to Scale (S2S)

S2S Lead Network 1,500 1,500

S2S Phase 1 12,000 12,000

S2S Phase 2 0 16,500

Subtotal 13,500 30,000

SEERNet 4,900 4,400

R&D Center 2,000 2,000

Total 24,150 52,650

1 These amounts may change as IES finalizes planning levels for fiscal year 2024 and 2025. New award amounts are 

dependent on the number of high-quality applications received. 
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Research Grant

Funds requested for fiscal year 2025 would be used to support grant competitions in areas such 

as: 

• Transformative Research in the Education Sciences: The Transformative Research in 

the Education Sciences program supports innovative research that has the potential to 

make advances towards solving challenges in the education field and/or to accelerate 

the pace of conducting education research to facilitate major breakthroughs. 

Transformative research projects are characterized by interdisciplinary and cross-sector 

collaboration and have the potential to lead to high reward solutions.

• Education Research Grants: This program supports field-initiated research projects 

and accounts for the largest share of NCER grants

(https://ies.ed.gov/funding/ncer_progs.asp). For each competition, IES invites 

applications on specific but wide-ranging topic areas. Applicants may propose 

exploratory research projects, development and innovation projects, initial efficacy and

follow-up projects, or measurement projects.

• Research Training: Research Training prepares individuals to conduct rigorous and 

relevant education research, including training and mentoring students and researchers

from diverse backgrounds who can improve the quality of education research by 

encouraging different and new ideas, approaches, and perspectives The training 

programs are a critical cornerstone of IES’s commitment to broadening participation and 

in responding to recommendations included in the NASEM report on The Future of 

Education Research. (https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/research/researchTraining.asp). 

• National Research and Development (R&D) Centers: The R&D Centers program 

(https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/research/randdCenters.asp) supports research, development, 

evaluation, and national leadership activities aimed at improving our education system. 

Each R&D Center conducts research in under-investigated topics that are of interest to 

education policymakers and practitioners. ESRA requires IES to support at least eight

R&D Centers on specified topics. 

IES expects to publish notices inviting applications for fiscal year 2025 awards in the 

Federal Register by summer 2024. NCER currently plans to award $104.6 million in new 

grants awards in fiscal year 2025.

IES also makes a small number of unsolicited grant awards. The total amount awarded is 

generally less than $1 million annually. These unsolicited awards are grants that are not 

eligible for funding under current grant competitions or that address time-sensitive

questions, but that are reviewed using the same rigorous selection process as other grants. 

Additional information is available at https://ies.ed.gov/funding/unsolicited.asp.

Dissemination Activities

The fiscal year 2025 request includes $27.3 million for dissemination activities designed to 

ensure that practitioners and policymakers have access to high-quality research information in 

usable forms. These activities provide tools to help practitioners and policymakers easily locate 
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current information on the effectiveness of various strategies and interventions, thereby 

amplifying the impact of the Department’s investments in rigorous research and evaluation. 

The request for fiscal year 2025 will support the following dissemination activities:

• Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). ERIC provides a comprehensive, 

searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research 

and information for educators, researchers, and the general public 

(https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/projects/eric.asp). It covers journal and non-journal literature 

from 1966 to the present. More than half a million users search the ERIC website each 

week, with many more searching through ERIC data using vendor sites. 

• What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The WWC (https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/) reviews 

research to determine which studies meet rigorous, consistent, and transparent 

standards and produces single study reviews, intervention reports, and practice guides 

that present findings on what works in education. In fiscal year 2022 and 2023, the 

WWC released intervention reports related to English learners, reading, career and 

technical education, and social and emotional learning. The WWC also released a 

practice guide on providing reading interventions for students in grades 4-9. In 2023, the 

WWC underwent systematic reviews of focal domains to inform evidence-building 

activities. Priority for the first two reviews will be given to areas that both IES scientists 

and the Department’s program and policy offices believe have the greatest potential to 

identify effective practices to improve learner outcomes and eliminate inequities in 

student achievement. If this pilot is successful, NCEE will expand it to support three focal 

domain reviews per year. 

• National Library of Education (NLE). Operating as a depository library under the Federal 

Depository Library Program of the U.S. Government Publishing Office, the NLE serves 

as the Federal Government’s primary education information resource to the public, 

education community, and other Government agencies 

(https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/projects/nle/). The NLE's current collection, in print and 

electronic formats, focuses on education and includes subject matter such as 

economics, law, psychology, and sociology, as they relate to education.

Dissemination activity funding is also used for logistical and technical support, as well as 

technical assistance to support building and using evidence.

Other activities

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR): The SBIR program (https://ies.ed.gov/sbir/) 

awards contracts to qualified small businesses to conduct innovative research and 

development projects focused on education technology. Funding is provided through an 

annual set-aside of 3.2 percent of total estimated agency research and development 

(R&D) obligations each fiscal year. The Department is exploring options for sharing 

SBIR costs with the programs that generate those costs and intends to consult with 

Congress on those options, which may include, for example, seeking appropriations 

language giving the Secretary authority to reserve a portion of a program’s funds for 

SBIR purposes when the amount generated by that program for SBIR awards exceeds a 

certain threshold. In fiscal year 2025, the Department estimates that SBIR funding would 

total $14.2 million, based on total R&D estimated obligations.
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• IES/NSF AI Institute on Intelligent Tutoring: The fiscal year 2025 request includes 

$2.2 million for joint work with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on a new AI 

Institute, which will conduct research on AI-driven innovations designed to reduce 

achievement gaps, improve access, and address the needs of all learners. This institute 

will build upon the fiscal year 2021 IES Digital Learning Platforms Research Network. 

• Digital Modernization: The IES Digital Modernization project will rebuild the IES website 

and digital infrastructure to prioritize customers and products with a customer-centric 

design, content and data management tools, and agile technologies. At the end of fiscal 

year 2022, IES awarded a contract to begin phase 1 of the Digital Modernization 

implementation work. This phase includes those elements of the website and data 

infrastructure work that will serve as the foundation for more efficient, cost effective, and 

customer-focused digital offerings in later phases of the modernization effort. In fiscal 

year 2025 IES will support this effort in part with $7.5 million from RDD funds because

this work includes both website and data elements that are critical to RDD programs and 

activities. 
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PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Available funds 2023 2024 2025

Prior year carryover $34,308 $70,443 $58,887

Appropriation 245,000 245,000 245,000

Total available 279,308 315,443 303,887

Output Measures38F

1 2023 2024 2025

NCER Grants

Grant awards (new) $12,829 $54,550 $104,551

Grant award (continuations) 147,241 135,804 115,012

Education research: Subtotal 160,070 190,354 219,563

Dissemination Activities

What Works Clearinghouse 8,441 14,041 15,000

Educational Resources Information Center 6,831 5,271 5,500

National Library of Education 2,466 2,568 2,802

Technical assistance, logistical support, and other 3,648 3,882 4,000

Dissemination Activities: Subtotal 21,386 25,762 27,302

Peer review of new award applications 2,808 2,838 2,870

Small Business Innovation Research Contracts 12,932 14,200 14,200

IES/NSF AI Institute on Intelligent Tutoring 2,910 2,152 2,152

Seedlings to Scale 0 13,500 30,000

Digital Modernization 8,758 7,450 7,500

National Board for Education Sciences 1 300 300

Carryover into next budget fiscal year 70,443 58,887 0

Total 279,308 315,443 303,887

1 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for 2 years. This table reflects amounts obligated in 

each fiscal year and does not reflect the year in which funds were initially appropriated. As such, funds shown in any 

given column were obligated by the Department in the same fiscal year but may have been initially appropriated in 

multiple fiscal years.
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FY 2024 SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES

Grant Activities

(dollars in thousands)

Competitions for New FY 2024 Awards 

(Underway as of January 2, 2024) Applicants Notified Estimated Range

Maximum 

Project Period

Education Research Grants (84.305A) By July 1, 2024 $300-800 Up to 5 Years

Research Training Programs in the Education 

Sciences (84.305B)

By August 1, 2024 80-267 Up to 4 Years

Education Research and Development Center 

Program (84.305C)

By September 1, 2024 10,000-15,000 Up to 5 Years

Statistical and Research Methodology in 

Education (84.305D)

By August 1, 2024 100-300 Up to 3 Years

Digital Learning Platform Network Research 

Teams (84.305N) 

By August 1, 2024 200-500 Up to 2 Years

CTE Network Research Teams (84.305N) By August 1, 2024 200-800 Up to 4 Years

Using Longitudinal Data to Support State 

Education Policymaking (84.305S)

By March 1, 2024 100-333 Up to 3 Years

Transformative Research in the Education 

Sciences Grants Program (84.305T)

By March 1, 2024 300-1,250 Up to 3 Years

FY 2024 Continuation Awards Number of 

Awards

FY 2023 

Carryover

FY 2024 

Funds 

Education Research (84.305A) 139 $33,685 $46,325 

Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences 

(84.305B)

28 0 15,428 

Education Research and Development Centers (84.305C) 5 0 7,200

Statistical and Research Methodology in Education (84.305D) 11 235 2,700 

Research Networks Focused on Critical Problems of 

Education Policy and Practice (305N)

14 109 7,621 

Research Grants Focused on Systematic Replication 

(84.305R)

7 0 6,355 

Using Longitudinal Data to Support State Education 

Policymaking (84.305S)

11 0 3,484 

Transformative Research in the Education Sciences 

(84.305T)

1 0 673 

Improving Pandemic Recovery Efforts in Education Agencies 

(84.305X)

8 0 7,835 
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Contract Activities

(dollars in thousands)

Research Activities FY 2023 

Carryover

FY 2024 

Funds 

Small Business Innovation Research 0 $14,200

Seedlings for Advanced Development $12,000 0

Ideas Challenge 200 0

Dissemination/Knowledge Utilization Activities FY 2023 

Carryover

FY 2024 

Funds 

National Library of Education 0 $2,568

Educational Resources Information Center $5,271 0

What Works Clearinghouse 1,136 12,905

Operational Activities FY 2023 

Carryover

FY 2024 

Funds 

Peer review of new award applications 0 $2,838

Support for compliance with contractor security requirements $90 0

IES Cloud Hosting and Support 0 2,583

Digital Modernization 0 7,450

Administrative, Logistical and Technical Assistance Support 420 11

Printing 0 10

National Board for Education Sciences 0 300

ORCID Consortium Fees 0 7

NCER/NCSER DEIA in the Education Sciences 0 375

NCER Technical Working Group Meeting 145 0

NCER AI Institute 2,152 0

Jira Procurement 0 40

Lead/Support/TA provider for the seedlings 1,500 0

 
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PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, 

program goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data. Achievement of 

results is based on the cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for this program as 

well as the resources and efforts invested by those served by the program. 

Goal: Transform education into an evidence-based field.

Objective: Raise the quality of research funded or conducted by the Department.

Measure: The minimum percentage of projects that result in peer-reviewed publications.

Year Target Actual

2020 89% 81%

2021 90 82

2022 85 82

2023 85 83

2024 85 —

2025 85 —

Additional information: Peer-reviewed publications are an expected product of all research 

projects (i.e., grants). Given the lag from time of award to completion of a study and its 

publication, the denominator for each reporting year will be the cumulative number of research 

grants that had been funded through the end of the fiscal year 3 years prior to the reporting 

year. IES had set a long-range goal of 90% for this measure, a figure that proved to be overly 

ambitious, particularly since project lengths were increased to 4 years for development projects 

and 5 years for efficacy projects. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a halt in all inperson data collection, which means that many studies that were scheduled to end in 2023 have 

not been completed. While there has been a slight uptick in the actual percentage of projects 

resulting in peer-reviewed publications, RDD has not yet hit the established targets. Therefore, 

the targets for 2024 and 2025 remain at 85 percent.

Measure: The minimum number of IES-supported interventions with evidence of efficacy in 

improving student outcomes.

Year Target Actual

2020 137 135

2021 144 142

2022 150 154

2023 164 164

2024 174 —

2025 184 —
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Additional information: IES-supported interventions include those developed or evaluated 

by IES. Results of intervention evaluations typically are not available until the end of a grant 

award period. The reported data are the cumulative numbers of interventions since 2002 with 

evidence of meeting WWC standards and having positive effects on student outcomes as 

determined by the WWC reviewers. IES met its target for 2023. 

Efficiency Measures

Measure: The average number of research grants administered per program officer employed 

in the National Center for Education Research.

Year Target Actual

2020 40 51

2021 40 51

2022 35 48

2023 35 37

2024 35 —

2025 35 —

Additional information: The principal efficiency measure for IES is the ratio of research staff to 

research grants. The actual value for fiscal year 2023 reflects a substantial drop in the average 

number of research grants administered by program officers during the past fiscal year. This 

reduction reflects two realities. The first is that NCER for the first time in many years was able to 

hire 4 new staff (one of whom replaced a staff member who left at the end of fiscal year 2022). 

The second is that NCER did not have sufficient funds in fiscal year 2023 to run its full set of 

competitions, and so the number of new awards made were substantially fewer than would 

typically be made. The targets established for 2024 and 2025 reflect IES’s ongoing commitment 

to significantly reducing the grants to staff member ratio; IES will track these numbers closely in 

fiscal year 2024.
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Statistics

(Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Part C)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined39F

1,40F2

Budget Authority:

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

$121,500 $121,500 0

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is one of four Centers in the Institute of 

Education Sciences (IES) established by the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002. 

NCES is also the Department’s Recognized Statistical Agency, with responsibilities specified in 

44 U.S.C. 3563(a)(1), including the following four fundamental responsibilities:

• Produce and disseminate relevant and timely statistical information;

• Conduct credible and accurate statistical activities;

• Conduct objective statistical activities; and

• Protect the trust of information providers by ensuring the confidentiality and exclusive 

statistical use of their responses.

To fulfill these responsibilities, NCES is authorized to:

• Collect, acquire, compile, and disseminate full and complete statistics on the condition 

and progress of education in the U.S.;

• Conduct and publish reports on the meaning and significance of such statistics;

• Collect, analyze, cross-tabulate, and report data, where feasible, by demographic 

characteristics, including gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language status, 

mobility, disability, and urbanicity;

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action.

2 The statute authorizes such sums as may be necessary for all of Title I of ESRA, of which not less than the amount 

provided to the National Center for Education Statistics for FY 2002 shall be available for Part C, which is 

$85,000,000. 
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• Help public and private educational agencies and organizations improve their statistical 

systems;

• Acquire and disseminate data on U.S. education activities and student achievement 

compared with foreign nations; and

• Conduct longitudinal and special data collections necessary to report on the condition 

and progress of education.

NCES is also authorized to establish a program to train employees of public and private 

educational agencies, organizations, and institutions in the use of statistical procedures and 

concepts and may establish a fellowship program to allow such employees to work as 

temporary fellows at NCES.

Under the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, the NCES Commissioner 

is the Department of Education’s Chief Statistical Officer, responsible for directing and 

coordinating statistical policy for the agency.

The NCES Commissioner also serves as the Department’s Senior Agency Official for 

Geographic Information under the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 (GDA) and required to address 

the statutory requirements for geospatial data under the that Act on behalf of the Department. 

NCES is required to allocate program budget to meet these data responsibilities, and NCES is 

obligated to regularly report compliance to the Office of the Inspector General and to other 

federal entities. The GDA specifically requires that NCES will:

• Include geospatial data in preparing its budget submission.

• Apply geospatial data and geospatial IT to improve operations, support decision-making, 

and provide information to the public. 

• Collect, maintain, disseminate, and preserve geospatial data so that resulting data and 

information is easily accessible and shareable. 

• Use appropriate geospatial data and metadata standards and make the resulting 

metadata available through the GeoPlatform.41F

1

• Submit an annual report to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (who provides it to 

Congress) that documents compliance with GDA requirements and progress toward its 

geospatial data strategy. 

Statistical information collected by NCES contributes to the identification of needs in education 

and informs the development of policy priorities. The authorizing statute requires the 

Commissioner of NCES to issue regular reports on education topics, particularly in the core 

academic areas of reading, mathematics, and science, and to produce an annual statistical 

report on the condition and progress of education in the United States. NCES studies provide 

1 https://www.geoplatform.gov/
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information on a wide range of issues that are critical to understanding the U.S. education 

system, including such topics as teacher shortages, mobility, and attrition; education equity; 

school safety; high school completion; preparation for higher education; college costs; student 

financial aid; and the achievement of students in the U.S. compared with that of other countries. 

NCES coordinates with other Federal agencies when carrying out surveys to maximize the 

value of the information collected and to minimize response burdens on stakeholders. For 

example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has contributed to the Early 

Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten Class of 2010−11 (ECLS-K:2011); the National 

Science Foundation participated in the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS:2009); NCES 

collaborates with the National Science Foundation on the National Training, Education, and 

Workforce Study; and NCES collaborates with the Bureau of Justice Statistics to administer the 

School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. NCES also collaborates 

with the Bureau of Justice Statistics on the production of the Indicators of School Crime and 

Safety report. Because of NCES’s lean staffing, almost all programmatic work is conducted 

through competitively awarded contracts.

Five areas, each with a set of specific activities, make up the Statistics budget:

• Administrative Data Collections and Support includes basic descriptive data collections 

from public schools at the elementary and secondary levels and from public and private 

postsecondary institutions, activities that support the proper management and 

development of geospatial data related to education, as well as activities that improve 

the data management capabilities of state agencies, promote the development and 

adoption of voluntary data standards, and provide technical assistance.

• Longitudinal Studies collect information on the same students over time. Studies 

undertaken by NCES include studies of students from elementary school through 

postsecondary education and training. Such studies provide insight into how students 

and educational systems influence one another and ultimately provide educators and 

policymakers with information to examine student development and factors associated 

with change over time to improve the quality of education. These studies often include 

direct assessments of student academic knowledge to measure academic growth.

• International Studies provide insights into the educational practices and outcomes in the 

U.S. by enabling comparisons with other countries. These studies reflect the 

longstanding concern—dating back at least to the landmark 1983 report “A Nation at 

Risk”—over the role of education in maintaining the Nation’s global competitiveness and 

ensuring continued economic growth and prosperity. They also provide data on adult 

skills (including literacy and numeracy), lifelong learning, and skills training programs, as 

well as support studies of factors associated with a range of educational and work 

outcomes.

• Cross Sectional Studies provide data needed to understand trends in education and 

provide flexibility to collect and release data rapidly on pressing issues. Current NCES 

cross sectional studies regularly collect and report extensive information about school 

staffing, school safety, homeschooling, parent involvement in education, private school 

characteristics, extensive pulse studies on issues affecting elementary and secondary 
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school operations, and other issue-specific data from public and private schools, their 

staff, and households.

• Crosscutting Activities include activities designed to enhance the effectiveness and 

usefulness of statistical data collections and publications; programs to review and 

improve the quality of NCES studies and to safeguard privacy and confidentiality; 

initiatives to train the public on accessing and using NCES data; production of the 

congressionally mandated Condition of Education report and other topical special 

reports; and the development of equity data resources. 

Funding levels for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $117,50042F

1

2021 111,500

2022 111,500

2023 121,500

2024 Annualized CR 121,500

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $121.5 million for Statistics, level with a fiscal 

year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The Statistics request 

includes funds for a broad range of surveys and activities that provide information on education 

at all levels. In order to provide the flexibility NCES needs to support program activities, the 

request would continue to make funding available for two years.

Administrative Data Collections and Support

The Administrative Data Collections and Support category includes basic descriptive data 

collections from public schools at the elementary and secondary levels and from public and 

private postsecondary institutions, as well as activities that support improvement of data 

standards and technical assistance. The fiscal year 2025 request includes approximately 

$23.6 million to continue existing administrative data collections. Key activities include:

• The Common Core of Data (CCD) (http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/), the Department’s primary 

database on public elementary and secondary education in the U.S., provides annual 

information on all school districts and public elementary and secondary schools, 

including public charter schools. Examples of such information include basic descriptive 

information such as student enrollment, demographic, and high school completion data; 

numbers of teachers and other staff; and fiscal data, including revenues and 

expenditures.

1 Reflects a reprogramming of $6,500,000 in fiscal year 2020 funds from the Assessment program to Statistics to 

“repay” the funds transferred to Assessment in fiscal year 2019.
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• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 

(http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/) is a comprehensive data collection system for postsecondary 

institutions, including all Higher Education Act Title IV institutions. Components of the 

survey include: institutional characteristics, admissions, fall enrollment, completions, 

salaries, finance (including current revenues by source; current expenditures by function, 

assets, and indebtedness; and endowment investments), student financial aid, staff, 

graduation rates, outcome measures, and academic libraries. NCES will add items to the 

IPEDS Admissions survey in 2025-26 to better understand equity in early decision and 

early admission processes, and to better study non-first-time students.

• The Common Education Data Standards (https://ceds.ed.gov/) project is a national 

collaborative effort to develop voluntary, common data standards for a key set of 

education data elements to streamline the exchange, comparison, and understanding of 

data within and across P-20W (Preschool, Grade 20 or Higher Education, Workforce) 

institutions and sectors.

• The Surveys and Cooperative Systems program provides support for efforts to improve 

the quality, timeliness, and comparability of statistics used for education policymaking at 

all levels of government, including the National Forum on Education Statistics 

(http://nces.ed.gov/forum/about.asp) and two National Postsecondary Education 

Cooperatives (http://nces.ed.gov/npec/): one focused on IPEDS and one on the 

postsecondary longitudinal and sample surveys.

• The Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program 

(http://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/) provides the Department’s primary source of 

annually updated school district data on social, economic, and housing conditions, 

including poverty data needed for program administration. The EDGE program also 

oversees geospatial data activities required to support statistical and statutory grant 

programs and to address statutory requirements under the GDA. 

Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal Studies are designed to collect information on the same students over time. The 

fiscal year 2025 request includes approximately $38.1 million to support the following 

longitudinal studies:

• The Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS) (http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/) are a series 

of longitudinal studies that follow children from birth or from kindergarten entry to

examine child development, school readiness, and early school experiences. The first 

study was the ECLS Kindergarten Class of 1998-99; the second was the ECLS Birth 

Cohort of 2001. The latest completed study in the series, the ECLS Kindergarten Class 

of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:11), concluded data collection in the spring of 2016 and has 

enabled researchers to study how a wide range of family, school, community, and 

individual factors are associated with performance in school over time. The newest 

ECLS program study, the ECLS-K:2024, is following the kindergarten class of 2023-24

through the fifth grade. The study had been scheduled to follow the kindergarten class of 

2022-23 but was delayed due to the pandemic.
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• The High School Longitudinal Studies (HSLS) (most recent cohort with available data is 

at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsb/) collect data on a cohort of students from ninth grade 

through their postsecondary education years. The first study began in 1972. The fifth 

study, the HSLS:09 (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsls09/), collected data in the fall of 2009 

from a sample of students in the ninth grade; follow-ups were conducted in 2012, 2013, 

and 2016. Subsequent waves of data collection will follow the sample members through 

postsecondary education and beyond, providing information on transitions from high 

school to postsecondary education and/or the workforce. The sixth study in the series 

started in the fall of 2022 with a sample of 9th grade students. In 2025, the grade 12 

data collection will be undertaken for this cohort.

• The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) 

(http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas/) is a comprehensive, cross-sectional study of 

undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional degree-seeking students that examines 

how students and their families pay for postsecondary education. NPSAS serves as the 

base-year sample for two longitudinal studies, the Beginning Postsecondary Students 

(BPS) longitudinal study and the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) longitudinal study. 

NCES is revising the NPSAS data collection schedule. More recently, NPSAS was 

conducted every 2 years with a student interview included every 4 years (e.g., 

NPSAS:20 and NPSAS:24). An administrative data collection, which uses only 

administrative data from the Department’s data systems and institutional student 

records, had occurred in the other years. However, to reduce burden on institutions and 

address resource needs, the every-other-year collection model was not pursued and 

NPSAS:22 was not conducted. NPSAS:24 will be a full collection, which includes a 

student survey and administrative data collection; and NCES is considering a shift to a 

collection with direct student interviews every 6 years with each followed by an 

administrative-only survey 3 years after each direct interview version.

• The Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study

(http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps/) follows a cohort of beginning postsecondary students 

and provides data on a variety of topics, including student demographics, school and 

work experiences, persistence, transfer, and degree attainment. The most recent fully 

completed BPS study, BPS 12/17 cohort, began their postsecondary education in 2012. 

Follow-up data collections occurred in 2014 and 2017. A new BPS cohort, BPS 20/22, 

was initiated for the 2019-20 academic year. The follow-up for this cohort will be 

conducted in 2025.

• The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b/) 

follows students who complete their baccalaureate degrees. Initially, students in the 

NPSAS surveys who are identified as being in their last year of undergraduate studies 

are asked questions about their future employment and education expectations, as well 

as about their undergraduate education. In later follow-ups, students are asked 

questions about their job search activities, education, and employment experiences after 

graduation. The first B&B cohort was drawn from the 1993 NPSAS sample; the latest 

B&B cohort was drawn from the 2016 NPSAS. Given current resource limitations, the 

study has been discontinued.
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International Studies

International Studies (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/) provide insights into U.S. 

educational practices and outcomes by allowing comparisons with other countries. Funding for 

the International Studies program is estimated at $20.1 million in fiscal year 2025 and supports 

the following activities:

• International Analysis supports many activities, including the Indicators of National 

Education Systems Project, a cooperative effort among member countries of the 

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to develop an 

education indicator reporting system. The primary vehicle for reporting on these 

indicators is an annual OECD report entitled “Education at a Glance” (http://www.oecdilibrary.org/). 

• The International Computer and Information Literacy Study, organized by the 

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) 

(https://www.iea.nl/studies/iea/icils), is a comparative study to evaluate students’ 

computer and information literacy (i.e., their ability to use computers to investigate, 

create, and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the 

workplace, and in the community). Results from the 2023 study will be released in late 

2024.

• The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies

(http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/), which is sponsored by the OECD, is a household 

study assessing the basic skills and the broad range of competencies of adults around 

the world and includes detailed information that links skills with educational 

achievement, work experience, training, demographic and health information, and civic 

involvement. The most recent data collection in the U.S. began in fall 2022 and was 

conducted through late spring 2023.

• The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 

(http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/), also sponsored by OECD, is designed to monitor, on 

a regular 3-year cycle, the achievement of 15-year-old students in three subject areas: 

reading literacy, mathematical literacy, and scientific literacy. An online International 

Data Explorer (IDE) is available that allows users to create their own tables and charts 

from available data (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/ide/). Because of the 

COVID-19 pandemic, the most recent assessment was rescheduled from 2021 to fall 

2022. Results were released in spring 2023. The next assessment is scheduled for 

2025.

• The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 

(http://nces.ed.gov/TIMSS/), also sponsored by the IEA, is a study conducted every 4 

years of fourth and eighth graders’ mathematics and science achievement in the U.S. 

and other participating nations. The TIMSS IDE allows users to create their own tables 

and charts using TIMSS data (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/ide/). The most 

recent TIMSS was conducted in 2023. 
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• The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 

(https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/talis/) is a survey about teachers, teaching, and learning 

environments in the U.S. and other participating nations, sponsored by the OECD. 

TALIS is composed of two questionnaires—one for teachers and one for their 

principals—that ask questions about their backgrounds, work environments, professional 

development, and beliefs and attitudes about teaching. TALIS is unique because it is the 

only comparative international education study that collects data on nationally 

representative samples of teachers. For the United States, TALIS provides key 

information on teachers and principals and how they and their working and learning 

environments compare internationally. The most recent round of data collection was in 

2018, and the next data collection is scheduled for 2024.

Cross Sectional Studies

Cross Sectional Studies, which include a set of sample surveys that provide extensive data 

about public and private schools, staff, and households throughout the U.S., would receive 

nearly $27.1 million in fiscal year 2025 for the following surveys and activities:

• The School Pulse Panel (SPP) (https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/spp/) was initiated to 

provide real-time data about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on public K-12 

education. Data are collected from a representative sample of public K-12 schools 

monthly. Content focuses on how COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the delivery of 

education and how schools are navigating recovery efforts from the pandemic. From 

identification of a data need to publication of results takes just a few weeks. This is a 

much faster process than full statistical data collection and reporting systems used for 

most official statistics that involve survey components. The model is specifically 

designed to focus on content amenable to short design and evaluation schedules.

• The National Teacher and Principal Survey (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/) is the 

Department’s primary source of information on teacher and principal preparation, 

classes taught in public schools, and demographics of the teacher and principal labor 

force. Topics include professional development, working conditions, and teacher and 

principal evaluation. The survey also supports trend analyses in areas such as the 

average salary of a beginning principal, the average student-teacher ratio in the U.S., 

and teachers’ views of their autonomy in the classroom. Public-school information is 

available at the state level and private-school information by affiliation. The 2023-24 data 

collection is underway.

• The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ssocs/) 

and the School Crime Supplement (SCS) (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crime/) provide 

many of the statistics used to provide context when behavioral challenges, crises and 

tragedies occur in our Nation’s schools. SSOCS provides information on school 

incidents, discipline rates, and school safety programs and policies from a nationally 

representative sample of public elementary and secondary schools, while the SCS 

collects information about school-related victimization, crime, and safety in public and 

private schools as part of a national survey of students ages 12 through 18 conducted by 

the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). 
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• The Survey of Earned Doctorates in the United States

(http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctorates/) annually collects basic statistics from the 

universe of doctoral recipients in the U.S. NCES coordinates with NSF to support the 

study and integrate the study information needed by the Department of Education.

• The National Household Education Surveys (https://nces.ed.gov/nhes/) is a suite of data 

collections designed to provide descriptive data on a wide range of education-related 

issues, including early childhood care and education, children’s readiness for school, 

before- and after-school activities of school-age children, adult participation in education 

and training for work, parent involvement in education, school choice, and 

homeschooling. The most recent study began in January 2023 with a focus on school 

choice, parent involvement in education more generally, and early childhood care and 

education. To improve data quality and utility and reduce potential redundancies 

between NCES and NSF, NCES is building on its strong working relationships with NSF 

to support its new National Training, Education, and Workforce Study (NTEWS) 

(https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyntews/). As a result, NCES is not currently planning to 

field new adult education modules in NHES for the foreseeable future.

• The Private School Survey (PSS) (https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/), conducted every 

2 years, provides information on the number of private schools, teachers, and students 

in the U.S. while providing a sampling frame for other federal surveys including NAEP. 

The survey includes private schools in the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The 

2023-24 collection is currently underway.

Crosscutting Activities

Crosscutting Activities would receive approximately $12.6 million in fiscal year 2025 to support 

the following:

• Annual Reports and Indicators include three major annual statistical compilations of 

critical education indicators: the “Condition of Education” 

(http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/), the “Digest of Education Statistics” 

(http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/), and “Projections of Education Statistics” 

(https://nces.ed.gov/programs/pes/). NCES also produces short-format statistical briefs 

on emerging issues in education. Funding will also support adding findings to the Equity 

in Education Dashboard (https://nces.ed.gov/programs/equity/), which compiles key 

findings and trends on the current state of educational equity in the United States.

• The Current Population Survey (http://www.census.gov/cps/) is a monthly household 

survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census. Since the late 1960s, NCES has 

provided funding for a supplement that gathers data on enrollment in elementary, 

secondary, and postsecondary education and on educational attainment. NCES funds 

additional items on education-related topics such as timing of credential award, timing of 

last enrollment, and preschool enrollment. 

• Funding for Data Development and Statistical Standards provides methodological and 

statistical support to NCES, as well as to Federal and non-Federal organizations that 
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engage in statistical work in support of NCES mission. Activities include developing 

standards that ensure the quality of statistical surveys, analyses, and products; 

coordinating the review of NCES products; coordinating revisions to the NCES Statistical 

Standards; funding the National Forum on Education Statistics 

(https://nces.ed.gov/forum/); managing the distribution of confidential data, including 

implementation of the Standard Application Process (SAP); and improving the 

Department’s Data Inventory (http://datainventory.ed.gov/). NCES will participate in 

interagency work related to the SAP through extensive participation in the SAP 

Technical Working Group focused on the SAP Portal and co-chairing the SAP Policy and 

Budget sub-working group. 

• The IES Digital Modernization project will rebuild the IES website and digital 

infrastructure to prioritize customers and products with a customer-centric design, 

content and data management tools, and agile technologies. This work will advance IES' 

mission as an applied science agency by leveraging the website to address the interests 

of core audiences – including parents, teachers, and administrators – in practical, 

accessible data and research on education. At the end of fiscal year 2022, IES awarded 

a contract to begin phase 1 of the Digital Modernization implementation work. This 

phase includes those elements of the website and data infrastructure work that will serve 

as the foundation for more efficient, cost effective, and customer-focused digital offerings 

in later phases of the modernization effort. IES also has a separate contract to support 

the Digital Modernization program management office that will support the 

implementation vendor as they build these foundational elements. Because this work 

includes both website and data elements, the Research, Development and 

Dissemination and Statistics lines are supporting this work. The contract to support 

Phase II of the digital modernization project has not been awarded yet. The scope and 

cost of this work will depend on the successful completion of Phase I.
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PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Output Measures43F

1 2023 2024 2025

Administrative Data Collections and Support $23,632 $23,632 $23,632

Longitudinal Studies 38,100 38,100 38,100

International Studies 20,073 20,073 20,073

Cross-Sectional Studies 27,051 27,051 27,051

Crosscutting Activities 12,644 12,644 12,644

Total 121,500 121,500 121,500

PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, 

program goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data; and an assessment of 

the progress made toward achieving program results. Achievement of program results is based 

on the cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for the program as well as the 

resources and efforts invested by those served by the program. 

Goal: To collect, analyze, and disseminate information on the condition of education in 

the United States and to provide comparative international statistics.

Objective: Provide timely and useful data that are relevant to policy and educational 

improvement.

1 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for two years. The table provides estimates of the 

amounts from each year’s appropriation that will be used for each area, not the amount obligated in each of those 

years. 
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Measure: The extent to which customers would recommend NCES to others and would rely on 

NCES in the future as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Year Target Actual

2016 74% 72%

2018 74 73

2020 74 73

2022 74 73

2023 74 72

2025 74 —

Additional information: NCES collects customer satisfaction information through the ACSI 

(http://www.theacsi.org/), which provides satisfaction scores based on samples of customers. 

The baseline for this measure, 74 percent, was established using 2008 data. As in 2020, NCES 

barely missed the target in 2023. However, the NCES score continues to outperform the 

Federal Government average, which is 66 for 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have depressed the survey response rate. Customer surveys 

typically get a response rate of 2 to 5 percent, but efforts to reach respondents over the years 

resulted in a response rate of 22 percent in 2018, up from 8 percent in 2014. In 2020, the survey 

began just as the pandemic was declared, and the response rate was 17 percent. Due to the 

pandemic, the most recent survey was delayed until 2023. The response rate in 2023 was 

15 percent, a decrease from 2020 but still substantially higher than typical for customer surveys, 

as noted above.

Measure: The percent of data collections in which the response rate was below 85 percent.

Year

Number of 

Reports

Number of 

Survey 

Components

Number of Survey 

Components with 

Response Rates 

Below 85%

Percent of Survey 

Components with 

Response Rates 

Below 85%

2020 34 59 13 22%

2021 42 81 45 56

2022 40 88 52 59

2023 30 57 36 63

2024 — — — —

2025 — — — —

Additional information: One way in which NCES attempts to ensure the quality of its work is 

by maintaining high survey response rates. High response rates help ensure that survey data 

are representative of the target populations. When a survey response rate is lower than 

85 percent, the NCES statistical standards require a bias analysis to help determine the effect of 

the low rate on the survey results. All NCES surveys in 2009 through 2023 either had an 

85 percent response rate or higher or had nonresponse bias analyses conducted and weight 

adjustments made, as needed.
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Efficiency Measures

NCES adopted an efficiency measure in 2016 that tracks survey data release timeliness by 

measuring if the reports for certain periodic data collections are released by a predetermined 

date. The efficiency measure addresses customers’ concerns about data timeliness and helps 

assess whether NCES completes work in a timely manner.

NCES’ goal is to release reports for certain periodic data collections to the public by a 

predetermined release date, ensuring that the public can expect NCES reports for annual or 

biennial data collections at an anticipated date during a reporting year. Specifically, the data 

collections that are tracked for this measure are IPEDS (annual), CCD (annual), PSS (biennial), 

and the Condition of Education (annual). 

Measure: The percentage of reports for certain periodic data collections meeting their annual or 

biennial release dates.

IPEDS Data Collection

Year Number of Reports Target Actual

2020 3 100% 67%

2021 3 100 100

2022 3 100 100

2023 3 100 67

2024 3 100 —

2025 3 100 —

Additional information: This measure tracks the release dates of the Fall, Winter, and Spring 

IPEDS surveys. Each of these collection cycles includes important information that is used by 

policymakers and researchers, as well as by students and their parents. The goal is to release 

provisional edited and imputed data within 9-10 months after a collection closes and final 

release data, including revisions from institutions, within a year of the provisional release. 

IPEDS Fall data were released 11 months after collection, Winter data were released 10 months 

after collection close, and Spring data are scheduled to be released 9 months after collection 

close.
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Common Core of Data (CCD) Data Collection

Year Target Actual

2020 100% 60%

2021 100 100

2022 100 100

2023 100 100

2024 100 —

2025 100 —

Additional information: The CCD is the primary source of key information about public 

elementary and secondary schools and their students and staff. The goal is to release data 

within 1 year from the end of data collection. In 2023, the first set of CCD nonfiscal data 

containing the preliminary school and district directory files was released within 4 months from 

the end of data collection. The second set of CCD nonfiscal data containing the final directory, 

students, and staff data are currently being reviewed and has a forecast release in January 

2024, which is within 5 months from the end of data collection. In 2023, the CCD State level 

finance data covering State FY 2021 was released within 8 months of the close of the National 

Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS) collection. The district level finance data covering 

State FY 2021 was released within 10 months of the close of the School District Finance Survey 

(F-33) data collection.

Private School Survey (PSS) Data Collection

Year Number of Reports Target Actual

2017 1 100% 0

2019 1 100 100%

2021 1 100 0

2023 1 100 0

2025 1 100 —

Additional information: The PSS is the primary source of data about private schools and their 

students and staff. The data also serve as the sampling frame for sample surveys that include 

private schools. The goal is to release survey data within 1 year of the end of data collection. 

Data from the 2019-2020 Private School Survey were released in a First Look Report in

September 2021. Data collection for the 2021-2022 collection ended in June 2022, and data 

were publicly reported in December 2023. The next collection will be for the 2023-2024 school 

year.
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Condition of Education Data Collection

Year Number of Reports Target Actual

2020 1 100% 100%

2021 1 100 100

2022 1 100 100

2023 1 100 100

2024 1 100 —

2025 1 100 —

Additional information: The “Condition of Education” is a congressionally mandated report 

that is updated using data from every NCES data collection released in the prior year and 

external data from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 

and international education consortia. 
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Regional educational laboratories

(Education Sciences Reform Act, section 174)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined44F

1

Budget Authority:

Period of fund availability: 

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

Annual appropriation $58,73345F

2 $58,733 0

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) program (https://ies.ed.gov/rels/), which is 

administered by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) 

within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), supports a network of 10 laboratories that work 

in partnership with State educational agencies (SEAs), school districts, and other entities to use 

data and research to improve academic outcomes for students. Each of the RELs serves a 

specific region of the country.

RELs conduct and disseminate information about applied research and evaluations; develop 

and disseminate research-based reports and guidance on best practice; and provide training, 

coaching, and technical support to SEAs, local educational agencies (LEAs), school boards, 

and State boards of education. Through these activities, the RELs build local and State capacity 

to use data and evidence, access high-quality research to inform decisions, conduct their own

research, and track progress over time using high-quality data and methods. REL resources are 

allocated based on several variables, including the number of LEAs and school-age children 

served and the cost of providing services within the region. RELs are funded through 5-year 

contracts with research organizations and institutions of higher education.

The current REL contracts, awarded in fiscal years 2022 (all regions except the Southwest) 

and 2023 (the Southwest region), include an explicit focus on supporting sustained, ongoing 

partnerships with stakeholders at the State and district levels. Under the direction of their 

regional governing boards, RELs identify priority topic areas on which to focus their activities.

Although the research partners in the regions are the primary stakeholders of each REL, the 

Department also requires that RELs develop materials for national distribution through the IES

website. In addition to reports and studies, these materials include resources for classroom 

teachers, school leaders, and local and State education agency staff (e.g., professional 

development activities, tools to support evidence-based practice) that can be used by others 

not directly served by the RELs.

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action.

2 The FY 2025 request includes a rescission of $15,000 thousand from fiscal year 2024 funds expected to be carried 

over into fiscal year 2025.
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Funding levels for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $56,022

2021 57,022

2022 58,733

2023 58,733

2024 Annualized CR 58,733

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $58.7 million for the RELs, level with a fiscal 

year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. All requested funds 

would support the continuation of the 10 existing RELs contracts. The request also includes the 

rescission of $15 million from the funds originally appropriated to the RELs in fiscal year 2024 

and remaining available in fiscal year 2025. As a significant amount of carryover funding has 

built up over time, a $15 million rescission would not have an impact on planned continuation 

awards. 

The fiscal year 2025 request would support the more than 70 partnerships the REL program has 

established with States, districts, and institutions of higher education since the start of the 2022-

2027 REL cycle. Partnerships have been established in every State and jurisdiction served by 

the program, and each is working to solve locally-defined problems of policy and practice across 

a wide range of issues, from early literacy and numeracy in REL Appalachia to adult college 

completion in REL West. 

The RELs prioritize student learning and development, including academic achievement, as a 

part of all their work, including through their partnerships with State and local education 

agencies. RELs train educators and education agencies on ways to accelerate learning and

address pandemic-related challenges, have developed applied research to better understand

areas where needs related to academic achievement may be most acute, and disseminate

evidence-based practices. This includes work that is essential to improving student

achievement, including assisting States with development and analysis of chronic absenteeism

measures and plans for addressing the underlying root causes of chronic absenteeism and

student disengagement; and implementing evidence-based strategies for learning acceleration

with fidelity, including high-dosage tutoring and expanded learning time (e.g., afterschool,

extended, and summer learning). 

Partnerships in each of the 10 RELs are focused on supporting academic excellence by

promoting student learning and development, critical as the nation’s education system continues

to recover from the impact of the COVID pandemic. In many States, RELs are partnering with

state and local educational agencies to ensure students build foundational skills necessary for

their long-term success. Examples include improving early literacy outcomes in Michigan,46F

1

1 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/midwest/partnerships/100026
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elementary literacy outcomes in Florida,47F

1 upper elementary math achievement in Wisconsin,48F2

and middle school literacy outcomes in Texas.49F

3 In some States, stakeholders have sought the

assistance of RELs in addressing the unique needs of underserved populations. Examples

include work in California50F

4 to improve academic outcomes for students in foster care, and

efforts focused on improving English learners’ literacy outcomes in Alabama51F

5 and their math

outcomes in Connecticut.52F

6 In addition to partnerships focused on students’ specific academic

needs, RELs also work with States and districts to address systemic concerns exacerbated by

the pandemic and central to recovery. Often, this involves working to strengthen the pipeline of

well-qualified educators, including their preparation, hiring, development, and retention.

Examples of this work include supporting Louisiana53F

7 in their ongoing initiatives related to early

career and aspiring teachers, improving teacher retention in Arizona,54F

8 and working with New

Jersey55F

9 in their existing effort to increase diversity in the teacher pipeline and improve student

outcomes in the State. More information about the REL program can be found at

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/. 

To achieve the program’s goals and meet the needs of its partners, the fiscal year 2025 request 

would support RELs to: 

• Conduct applied research in partnership with States and districts to address their most 

high-leverage problems of policy and practice, including academic achievement, 

including closing gaps in student achievement and other outcomes; 

• Continue collaborations with local partners to co-design, implement, and evaluate a 

series of toolkits that support classroom educators’ application of recommendations from 

IES’ What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guides to strengthen instruction including in 

the areas of foundational literacy, numeracy, and English language arts instruction; 

• Design and implement training, coaching, and technical support activities that 

emphasize the use of data and evidence-based practice to drive improvement in 

teaching and learning; and 

• Disseminate scientifically valid research, such as that produced by IES’ National Centers 

for Education and Special Education Research, and develop supporting materials that 

allow stakeholders to apply this knowledge to their own practice. 

Funds requested for fiscal year 2025 would also continue support for (1) the independent peer 

review of REL products and publications, ensuring their technical quality and relevance to 

education practitioners and policymakers; and (2) REL dissemination activities, including the 

REL website.

1 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/southeast/partnerships/100123 2 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/midwest/partnerships/100024

3 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/southwest/partnerships/101155

4 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/west/partnerships/100059

5 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/southeast/partnerships/100121

6 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/northeast/partnerships/100030

7 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/southwest/partnerships/101157

8 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/west/partnerships/100159

9 https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/midatlantic/partnerships/100020
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PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Available Funds 2023 2024 2025

Prior year carryover $24,197 $19,621 $20,296

Rescission of prior year carryover 0 0 -15,000

Current year appropriation 58,733 58,733 58,733

Total 82,930 78,354 64,029

Output Measures56F

1 2023 2024 2025

Regional Educational Laboratory contracts $59,903 $52,136 $50,707

Other, including shared web development, evaluation, 

and peer review of REL plans and products 3,406 5,922 5,688

Carryover 19,621 20,296 7,634

Total 82,930 78,354 64,029

1 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for 2 years. This table reflects amount obligated in 

each respective fiscal year and does not break down funds by funding fiscal year budget authority. Amounts for fiscal 

year 2025 are estimates. 
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States Served and Annual Level of Support for Each REL, FY 2022-2027 Award Cycle57F

1

Region States

Annual 

Budget in 

Millions

Percent of

Annual 

Budget

Appalachia Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia $4.7 9.0%

Central

Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North 

Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming 4.7 9.0

Mid-Atlantic

Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New 

Jersey, Pennsylvania 4.8 9.2

Midwest

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, 

Wisconsin 5.8 11.1

Northeast and 

Islands

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New 

Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, 

Vermont, the U.S. Virgin Islands 5.4 10.3

Northwest Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington 4.9 9.4

Pacific

American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of 

Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), 

Guam, Hawaii, the Republic of the Marshall 

Islands, the Republic of Palau

4.6 8.8

Southeast

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North 

Carolina, South Carolina 6.3 12.0

Southwest

Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, 

Texas 5.5 10.5

West Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah 5.7 10.9

Total 52.4 100.0

1 Numbers may not add up to the total due to rounding.
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PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, 

program goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data; and an assessment of 

the progress made toward achieving program results. Achievement of results is based on the 

cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for this program as well as the resources 

and efforts invested by those served by the program. 

Goal: Increase effective use of data and research, and capacity for use, among State and 

local education agencies.

Objective: Increase participants’ capacity to use data and research to inform decision-making.

Measure: The degree to which participants report that REL training increased their capacity to 

use research and data to inform decisions in their organization.

Year Target Actual

2020 Baseline 3.4

2021 3.5 3.4

2022 3.6 3.5

2023 3.6 3.6

2024 3.7 —

2025 —33.7 —

Additional information: The RELs are required to survey participants and report the data to 

IES. Ratings use a 4-point scale where 1 equates to “Strongly Disagree” and 4 equates to 

“Strongly Agree". For this measure, participants provided information on one or both of two 

questions, one on whether REL training increased their capacity to use research to inform 

decisions, and one on whether it increased their capacity to use data to inform decisions. 

Measure: The degree to which REL partnership members report that they plan to use, are in 

the process of using, or have used research or data to inform decisions in their agency, 

organization, or school.

Year Target Actual

2020 Baseline 98%

2021 100% 97

2022 100 100

2023 100 99

2024 100 —

2025 100 —

Additional information: For this measure, REL partnership members provided information on 

one or both of two questions depending on the focus of the partnership: (1) “I have used 

research presented by the REL to inform decisions in my agency/organization/school,” and (2) “I 

have used data in new ways to inform decisions in my agency/organization/school.” 
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Objective: Increase the capacity of REL partnership members to use data and research to 

inform decision-making.

Measure: The degree to which participants report that their participation in a REL partnership 

has increased their capacity to use research and/or data to inform decisions about policies or 

practices in their organization.

Year Target Actual

2020 Baseline 3.4

2021 3.5 3.3

2022 3.6 3.2

2023 3.4 3.3

2024 3.4 —

2025 3.4 —

Additional information: The RELs are required to survey participants and report the data to 

IES. Ratings use a 4-point scale where one equates to “Strongly Disagree” and four equates to 

“Strongly Agree”. For this measure, REL partnership members provided information on one or 

both of two questions, one on whether participation in a REL partnership increased their 

capacity to use research to inform decisions, and one on whether it increased their capacity to 

use data to inform decisions. 

Partnership members are representatives of an organization in the REL region that has a stake 

in improving educational outcomes for students and wants to partner with the REL to undertake 

research, training, coaching, or dissemination projects to address problems that are preventing 

all students from achieving positive outcomes. Partnerships meet regularly and work with the 

REL staff on applied research projects to answer questions posed by partnership members. 

They also help design, and often participate in, training, coaching, and technical support 

activities to help stakeholders use evidence and evidence-based practices. Partners also work 

with the REL to disseminate rigorous evidence and evidence-based practices. 
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Assessment

(National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined58F

1

Budget Authority:

Period 

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

National Assessment of Educational 

Progress $185,000 $185,000 0

National Assessment Governing 

Board 7,799 8,299 +500

Total 192,799 193,299 +500

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “The Nation’s Report 

Card,” is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our Nation’s 

students know and can do in various subject areas. NAEP is designed to measure and provide 

objective information on the status of and trends in student learning over time in a wide range of 

subject areas. Assessment frequency is specified in the authorizing statute. The Commissioner 

for Education Statistics must conduct:

• National fourth and eighth grade reading and mathematics assessments in public and 

private schools at least once every 2 years;

• National grade 12 reading and mathematics assessments in public and private schools on a 

regular schedule; and

• Biennial fourth and eighth grade State assessments of student achievement in reading and 

mathematics.

If time and resources allow, the Commissioner may conduct national and State assessments in 

additional subjects at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades in public and private schools at regularly 

scheduled intervals, including writing, science, U.S. history, geography, civics, economics, 

foreign languages, and arts; 12th grade State reading and mathematics assessments; and longterm trend assessments of academic achievement at ages 9, 13, and 17 in reading and 

mathematics. Whenever feasible, information must be collected and reported by race, ethnicity, 

socioeconomic status, gender, disability, and limited English proficiency. The NAEP schedule is 

publicly available at https://www.nagb.org/about-naep/assessment-schedule.html. 

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action.
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The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) is responsible for formulating policy for 

NAEP. NAGB is composed of 25 voting members including Governors, State legislators, chief 

State school officers, a superintendent, State and local board of education members, testing 

and measurement experts, a representative of business or industry, curriculum specialists, 

principals, classroom teachers, and parents. The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences 

(IES) serves as an ex officio, nonvoting member of the Board. Using a national consensus 

approach, NAGB develops appropriate assessment objectives and achievement levels for each 

grade in each subject area to be assessed.

The Assessment budget supports the following major program components:

• National NAEP: The main NAEP assessments report results for the Nation and are 

designed to follow the curriculum frameworks developed by NAGB. They periodically 

measure student achievement in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, 

geography, and other subjects.

• State NAEP: State assessments address the needs of State-level policymakers for reliable 

data concerning student achievement in their States in reading, mathematics, science, 

civics, and writing.

• The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA): Begun in 2002, the TUDA provides 

information on fourth and eighth grade student achievement in reading and mathematics in 

a small number of urban school districts. Although participation is voluntary, demand from 

districts to be included in TUDA has significantly increased in recent years, with 27 districts 

slated to participate in the fiscal year 2024 NAEP assessments.

• Long-term trend NAEP: In its long-term trend program, NAEP administers identical 

instruments from one assessment year to the next, measuring student achievement in 

reading and mathematics. These assessments do not evolve based on changes in curricular 

or educational practices.

• Evaluation and validation studies: Congress mandates that the Secretary provide for 

continuing review of the national and State assessments and student performance levels by 

one or more nationally recognized evaluation organizations. NAEP funds also support 

studies to examine critical validity issues involving NAEP design, interpretation, and 

operations.

• Research and development: Research and development (R&D) investments are critical both 

to maintain NAEP as the gold standard of large-scale assessments and to identify and 

produce cost savings and other efficiencies in program administration costs over time.

In order to inform the American public about the performance of the Nation's students, NAEP 

produces a series of public audience and technical materials that are available online 

(http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/). In addition, a data tool allows users to create their own 

data tables with national and State data.
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In 2021, IES began collecting data on schools’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of 

their response to the Executive Order on Supporting and Reporting and Continuing Operation of 

Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers. The 2021 NAEP Monthly School Survey 

(https://ies.ed.gov/schoolsurvey/mss-report/) collected data 5 times from February through June 

of 2021 from nationally representative samples of public and private schools with a grade 4 or a 

grade 8 to provide insight into the learning opportunities for students during the COVID-19 

pandemic. Results from this new pilot survey are available for analyzing the 2022 NAEP data, 

contributing to additional contextual factors for understanding educational outcomes of the 

nation’s fourth- and eighth-grade students. Building on the Spring 2021 NAEP Monthly School 

Survey, new dashboards with information about schools’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic 

during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years are also available online 

(https://ies.ed.gov/schoolsurvey/). Results for the 2023-2024 school year are collected by the 

School Pulse Panel, described in the Statistics activity narrative of this request.

The Federal Government is specifically prohibited from using NAEP to influence standards, 

assessments, curriculum, or instructional practices at the State and local levels, or from using 

NAEP to evaluate individual students or teachers or provide rewards or sanctions for individual 

students, teachers, schools, or school districts. In addition, the use of NAEP data for student 

promotion or graduation purposes is prohibited, and NAEP should not affect home schools. 

Maintenance of a system of records containing personally identifiable information on students is 

also barred, and assessments must not evaluate or assess personal or family beliefs and 

attitudes.

Test integrity is further ensured by the Commissioner for Education Statistics’ ability to decline 

to release cognitive test items that will be used in future assessments for 10 years—longer if 

important to protect long-term trend data—while continuing to provide for public access to 

assessment materials in secure settings. The NAEP statute requires that the public be notified 

about such access; requires that access be provided within 45 days in a mutually convenient 

setting; establishes procedures for receiving, reviewing, and reporting complaints; and provides 

criminal penalties for unauthorized release of assessment instruments.

Finally, participation in NAEP is voluntary for students and schools, as well as for local 

educational agencies, and each participating State must give permission for the release of the 

results of its State assessment. However, each State receiving funds through the Title I Grants 

to Local Educational Agencies program (i.e., all States, D.C., and Puerto Rico) must participate 

in NAEP’s biennial fourth and eighth grade reading and mathematics assessments, provided 

that the Secretary of Education pays for the costs of participation.
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Funding levels for both NAEP and NAGB for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $154,24559F

1

2021 172,745

2021, CRRSA Act 28,000

2022 187,745

2023 192,799

2024 Annualized CR 192,799

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $193.3 million for Assessment, $0.5 million

more than a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The 

request includes $185.0 million for NCES to administer NAEP and $8.3 million for NAGB to 

provide policy oversight of the assessments. The increase for NAGB would primarily fund cost 

of living adjustments for salaries and expenses, as well as additional staff support for critical 

needs related to NAGB’s legislatively mandated duties. 

Modernization for Cost Savings

In fiscal year 2023, NCES completed a field test to study device-agnostic and reduced-contact 

administration of NAEP using NAEP-provided devices. The field test studied the use of new, 

less-expensive NAEP-provided testing devices to administer NAEP in place of the current, more 

powerful and more expensive devices, as well as the first stage of a planned reduction in the 

number of field staff sent to schools to administer NAEP. This reduced-contact administration is 

enabled by improvements in NAEP’s digital assessment platform and administration 

management system, which reduce the amount of work required of field staff on the day of 

assessment. 

Results of these field tests showed that more than 80 percent of schools are capable of online 

NAEP administration, which is a prerequisite for device-agnostic administration, and produced 

useful insights into the best methods for preparing for and administering NAEP online. NCES 

plans to administer NAEP online in 2024 using schools’ internet and less-expensive NAEPprovided devices. In terms of reduced-contact administration, the field test revealed concerns 

schools had about providing staff to support the NAEP administration, including providing staff 

to monitor the separate accommodation sessions given severe school staff shortages.

Therefore, NCES will continue to provide field staff for separate accommodation sessions and 

will not pursue plans to transfer assessment administrator burden to schools at this time. As a 

result, the projected cost savings of these reduced-contact efforts are lower. NCES expects to 

save $6.0 million from 2024 through 2026 as a result of reduced-contact modernizations, and 

$30.0 million from 2024 through 2028 as a result of device-agnostic modernizations.

NCES completed the mathematics automated scoring challenge in 2023, and the results are 

forthcoming. The winning teams successfully scored at least 8 of the 10 NAEP questions 

1 Reflects reprogramming of $6,500 thousand in fiscal year 2020 funds from Assessment to Statistics.
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included in the challenge. However, none of the teams succeeded in explaining how their 

scoring models worked and could be interpreted. NCES performed an additional study in 2023

in which they attempted to use AI to score both reading and mathematics items from the 2022 

assessment. This study indicated that mathematics models are lagging behind reading models. 

Therefore, the 2024 dress rehearsal, in which NCES will test the automated scoring processes 

in the real-time of NAEP operations, will focus only on reading. NCES will continue to work to 

advance automated scoring in mathematics. Automated scoring is expected to save $2 million 

per administration by 2028. 

National Assessment of Educational Progress

The schedule on the next page reflects the NAEP schedule as approved by NAGB on 

November 16, 2023. 

NAEP Schedule, 2020-2030

Year Subject

National

Grades 

Assessed

State

Grades 

Assessed

Urban District

Grades 

Assessed

2024 Reading 4, 8, 12 4, 8 4, 8

2024 Mathematics 4, 8, 12 4, 8 4, 8

2024 Science 8

2024 Transcript Studies

2025 Long-term Trend, ages 9, 13, and 17

2026 Reading60F

1 4, 8 4, 8 4, 8

2026 Mathematics1 4, 8 4, 8 4, 8

2026 Civics 8

2026 U.S. History 8

2028 Reading 4, 8, 12 4, 8, 12 4, 8

2028 Mathematics 4, 8, 12 4, 8, 12 4, 8

2028 Science1 4, 8 8 8

2028 Transcript Studies

2029 Long-term Trend, ages 9, 13, and 17

2030 Reading 4, 8 4, 8 4, 8

2030 Mathematics 4, 8 4, 8 4, 8

2030 Civics1 4, 8, 12 8

2030 U.S. History1 4, 8, 12

2032 Reading 4, 8, 12 4, 8, 12 4, 8

Mathematics 4, 8, 12 4, 8, 12 4, 8

Science 4, 8, 12 8 8

Writing1 4, 8, 12

Transcript Studies

2033 Long-term Trend, ages 9, 13, and 17

1 A new or updated framework will be implemented in the assessment year.
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The ability of the NAEP program to support the planned assessment schedule depends on its

ability to undertake the R&D needed to innovate and modernize the NAEP assessment

platform. For example, NAEP currently brings its own powerful and relatively expensive devices

to schools, which entails costs for both the hardware (i.e., purchasing the devices) and the field

staff needed to deliver the devices to schools. These inefficiencies are compounded by

mandatory biennial fourth and eighth grade reading and mathematics assessments. Based on 

current trends, the cost of administering these assessments alone would eventually supplant

assessment in all other subjects over time. The costs for any given assessment are spread out

over 4 years, and vary depending on factors such as scope, subject, grade levels, and whether 

the assessment is conducted alone or in combination with another assessment. 

The 2025 request would help ensure that NAEP can implement the planned assessments, 

prepare for future assessments, such as a State-level assessment in civics in 2030 and others 

listed on the NAEP schedule, while also continuing to invest in the R&D needed to upgrade the

assessment platform and make the improvements that will decrease future assessment costs.

National Assessment Governing Board

The $8.3 million request for NAGB, an independent, bipartisan organization that formulates 

policy guidelines for NAEP, would be used to fund operational areas of NAGB’s work and cover 

cost of living adjustments for salaries and expenses, including additional staff support to cover 

critical needs. NAGB’s legislatively mandated duties includes work in operational areas to 

support the development of achievement levels and frameworks required for the administration 

and scoring of assessments, outreach for initial public release efforts, and dissemination of 

assessment results. NAGB has seen costs increase annually for staff salaries and benefits as 

well as for Department-wide IT and common support services, resulting in fewer funds available 

to support legislatively mandated activities.

NAEP State-level assessments are held every other year, meaning that costs are considerably 

higher in some years and lower in others. Consequently, the Department requests that NAEP 

funds continue to remain available for 2 years to provide flexibility to meet these varying year-toyear cost requirements.
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PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Output Measures61F

1 2023 2024 2025 

NAEP operational costs $177,171 $171,000 $175,000

NAEP research and development $7,82962F

2 $14,000 $10,000

NAGB $7,799 $7,799 $8,299

Total $192,799 $192,799 $193,299

Number of full-time equivalent permanent 

personnel associated with NAGB 13 14 15

FY 2024 SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE63F

3

Operational Activity

2023

Carryover

2024

Annualized CR

Research and Development64F

4 0 $13,107,400

Item Development $5,600,122 15,415,412

Design, Analysis, and Reporting 9,649,702 6,621,338

Sampling and Data Collection 30,351,854 46,646,644

Materials, Distribution, Processing, and Scoring 1,585,799 15,888,516

Web/Technology Development, Operations and 

Maintenance 2,561,613 13,179,056

Program Support and Quality Control, Service 

Center, Logistics Contracts 3,673,444 21,622,741

Program Support and Management 588,572 853,477

Publications and Dissemination 1,133,193 5,500,000

State Coordinators 0 9,414,648

Alliance Planning and Coordination 1,889,318 5,099,080

Platform Development 5,220,191 14,436,346

Total, Assessment 62,253,808 167,784,658

1 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for 2 years. The table provides estimates of the 

amounts from each year’s appropriation that will be used for each area, not the amount obligated in each of those 

years.

2 In fiscal year 2023, NCES used nearly $11.0 million for research and development. This includes fiscal year 2022 

carryover funding.

3 Funding for the National Indian Education Studies comes from the appropriation for Indian Education National 

Activities; funding for a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation is $970,000. 4 Research and development activities are supported through existing NAEP task orders. Research and development 

costs have been deducted from the activities lines and accumulated into the research and development line.
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PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, 

program goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data; and an assessment of 

the progress made toward achieving program results. Achievement of program results is based 

on the cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for the program as well as the 

resources and efforts invested by those served by the program.

Measure: The number of website page views: NAEP page views, excluding views of the NAEP 

Data Explorer (NDE).

Year Target Actual

2020 750,000 955,599

2021 800,000 865,566

2022 800,000 1,133,005

2023 1,000,000 1,293,438

2024 1,050,000 —

2025 1,100,000 —

Additional information: The NAEP page view measure provides an indication of the number of 

sessions during which a page in the entire NAEP website 

(https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/) was viewed at least once, excluding visits to NDE. It 

includes information about the NAEP program, including information geared toward participants, 

researchers, and educators. The revised targets beginning in 2020 reflect decreased views 

following the move of the NDE and other results-oriented tools to the nationsreportcard.gov web 

site.

The decrease in pageview numbers from 2020 to 2021 may be explained by it being a nonassessment year (due to the pandemic); a decrease in usual recruitment activity among 

participating teachers, parents, administrators, and students; and no national release of 

mathematics and reading results. However, even with the pandemic, the increased target for

fiscal year 2023 to 1 million reflects an expected increase in pageviews based on the recent 

redesign of the menu and home page to drive users more effectively to targeted information, as 

well as the launch of metadata to improve the website’s appearance in Google Search rankings.
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Measure: The number of website page views: Nation’s Report Card page views (all Nation’s 

Report Card web site data).

Year Target Actual

2020 600,000 738,211

2021 600,000 911,963

2022 600,000 1,217,556

2023 750,000 1,921,705

2024 1,000,000 —

2025 750,000 —

Additional information: The Nation’s Report Card measure provides an indication of the 

number of sessions during which a page in the entire Nation’s Report Card site was viewed at 

least once, which includes information from all the of the Report Cards, special reports, and 

data dashboards. 

Measure: The number of website page views: NDE page65F

1 views. 

Year Target Actual

2020 83,000 55,878

2021 50,000 57,717

2022 50,200 59,604

2023 75,000 84,199

2024 60,000 —

2025 50,000 —

Additional information: The NDE measure provides an indication of the number of sessions 

during which a page in the Data Explorer was viewed at least once. Targets were reset to reflect 

the implementation of a new version of the Data Explorer in February 2018 and the delay of the 

2021 NAEP assessment. 

Efficiency Measures

NCES measures efficiency by reporting on the time to release of NAEP reports. These 

measures examine the actual time from the end of data collection to release to NAGB and are 

an indication of how efficiently the Department analyzes and reports NAEP results.

Because any year with new frameworks requires additional work to analyze the results (e.g., 

conducting trend studies and setting achievement levels) and produce the final reports, NCES 

believes it is appropriate to exempt assessments with new frameworks from the efficiency 

measure calculations. This provides more comparable measurements from year to year, since 

different percentages of assessments may have new frameworks each year.

1 https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/xplore/nde
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Measure: The percentage of NAEP reports on State-level 4th, 8th, and 12th (if implemented) 

grade reading and mathematics assessments ready for release by NAGB within 6 months of the 

end of data collection.

Year Target Actual

2017 N/A N/A

2019 100% 100%

2022 100 100

2024 N/A —

Additional information: In 2017, due to the transition from a paper-based to digital 

assessment, the State results were released more than 12 months after the end of data 

collection, therefore targets and actual are reported as N/A. The assessments are conducted 

every other year, so data are reported for odd numbered years only for 2019 and prior years. 

Due to the pandemic, the 2021 assessments were postponed to 2022. The 2024 assessment 

will include a transition of the assessment devices and, as such, state results will be released 

more than 6 months after the end of data collection; therefore, the target is reported as N/A. 
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Research in special education

(Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Part E)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined66F

1

Budget Authority:

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

$64,255 $64,255 0

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Research in Special Education (RiSE) program, which is administered by the Institute of 

Education Science’s (IES) National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), supports 

rigorous research that aims to expand knowledge and understanding of the needs of infants, 

toddlers, and children with disabilities and improve services provided under the Individuals with 

Disabilities Act (IDEA). Research topics include developmental outcomes for infants and 

toddlers with disabilities; school readiness; achievement in core academic content areas 

(reading, writing, mathematics, science); behaviors that support learning in academic contexts; 

and functional skills that improve education outcomes and transitions to employment, 

independent living, and postsecondary education. 

IES held three RiSE competitions for new awards in fiscal year 2023 in the areas of Special 

Education Research, Research Training Programs in Special Education, and Special Education 

Research and Development. Additional information on these competitions is available on the 

IES funding opportunities website: Institute of Education Sciences: Funding Opportunities. 

Examples of how research supported with RiSE funding is leading to a better understanding of 

the needs of learners with and at risk for disabilities and improving outcomes for these learners

include:

Investments in research focused on special education teacher preparation and working 

conditions have led to a better understanding of state and district policy levers that could be 

used to improve the preparation, quality, and retention of the special education teacher 

workforce. 

• An exploratory study funded by NCSER used data from Washington state on over 1,300 

special education teacher candidates to examine relations between preservice teacher 

education experiences and outcomes for teachers and their students with disabilities. 

Findings showed that rates of workforce entry and retention in special education 

teaching positions are considerably lower for candidates with a dual endorsement in 

special education and another subject. 

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2011. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action. 
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• NCSER funded an in-depth exploration of the working conditions of special educators 

who support students with emotional and behavioral disorders. A key finding from this 

study was that special educators who have key colleagues to support co-running 

programs, such as paraprofessionals, are better able to provide effective instruction, 

because partners can manage significant behavior while teachers focus on instruction. 

Findings also suggested this may be essential for inclusion, as special educators without 

sufficient paraprofessional staff struggle to move students into general education classes 

if they need behavioral supports. 

Investments in building evidence on the impacts of behavioral interventions have led to a better 

understanding of what works to improve social and behavioral outcomes among students with 

disabilities.

• The Social-Emotional Learning Foundations (SELF) intervention was developed and 

evaluated with NCSER funding for the purpose of promoting self-regulation and socialemotional competence among early elementary age children at risk of emotional and 

behavioral disorders. The intervention is delivered class-wide, with more intensive 

supports provided in small groups to students most at risk. Findings from the efficacy 

study of SELF showed that children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders who 

received the intervention demonstrated significant improvements in social-emotional 

learning and self-regulation as compared to children who did not receive the 

intervention.

• NCSER funded a meta-analysis of over 100 school-based intervention studies focused 

on students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in order to identify best 

practices for improving outcomes for these students. Findings showed substantial 

evidence supporting the use of behavioral interventions to improve behavior outcomes 

for students with ADHD, including for example, behavioral parent training and behavioral 

classroom management, with less evidence for other commonly used supports such as 

academic modifications and/or accommodations.

Investments in high-quality mathematics interventions have led to significant improvements in 

mathematics performance among students with and at risk for disabilities.

• NCSER has supported the development and testing of Super Solvers, a fraction 

intervention for elementary school students struggling with math. Results of the efficacy 

study showed that students who received the intervention from tutors in small groups 

demonstrated significant improvements in fraction word problem solving and operations 

in comparison to those who did not receive the intervention. Super Solvers is undergoing 

further testing to determine its impact when implemented class-wide by general 

education teachers.

• Fusion, a first-grade intervention aimed at developing an understanding of whole 

numbers among students at risk for mathematics learning disabilities, was developed 

and evaluated with NCSER funding. Results of the efficacy study showed a significant 

impact of Fusion on students’ math performance. 
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• An NCSER-funded efficacy evaluation of Pirate Math Equation Quest, a word problemsolving intervention for third grade students with or at risk for mathematics learning 

disabilities, revealed that students who received the intervention significantly 

outperformed students in the control group on a measure of word problem solving.

Investments in the development and evaluation of school-based interventions for autistic 

students has resulted in significantly better outcomes for these students.

• Developed and evaluated with NCSER funding, the National Professional Development 

Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder (NPDC) model involves forming a school-based 

team to oversee autism program quality and the use of evidence-based practices to 

improve outcomes for autistic students as well as training and coaching for teachers to 

improve their use of evidence-based practices. Results of the efficacy study showed that 

schools that implemented the model demonstrated significantly better autism program 

quality and their teachers used significantly more evidence-based practices relative to 

comparison schools and teachers. Autistic students in these schools also made 

significantly greater gains on their individualized education plan (IEP) goals. The NPDC 

model has been implemented across multiple states and used to train hundreds of 

teachers in the U.S. 

• NCSER has supported the development and testing of schoolMAX, a comprehensive 

school-based intervention for autistic students in grades 1 through 5. The intervention 

includes social skills groups, classroom instruction, therapeutic sessions, and feedback 

on goals for autistic students as well as training for their parents. Findings from the 

efficacy study showed that autistic students who participated in the intervention 

demonstrated significantly better emotion recognition and social-communication skills 

and behaviors and reduced autism-related symptoms as compared to students who did 

not receive the intervention. 

Funding levels for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $56,500

2021 58,500

2022 60,255

2023 64,255

2024 Annualized CR 64,255

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $64.3 million for Research in Special 

Education, level with a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 

appropriation. RiSE funding supports a comprehensive program of special education research 

designed to expand knowledge and understanding of the developmental and educational needs 

of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities or at risk for disabilities. Continued investment 

in RiSE is essential to build the body of research for evidence-based practices and policies that 

will result in improved outcomes for students with disabilities. These include developmental 
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outcomes and school readiness, academic achievement, transition from high school to 

independent living, progress through and completion of postsecondary education, and 

employment.

At the fiscal year 2025 request level, IES would support approximately $15.4 million in new 

awards for the Special Education Research Grants Program (84.324A)67F

1 and Research Training 

in Special Education Program (84.324B).68F

2 In fiscal year 2025, NCSER will administer a full 

competition for the Special Education Research Grants Program across all research categories 

and will run two Research Training competitions focused on the early career training program

and a new dissertation award program. Funds requested for fiscal year 2025 will also support

$47.4 million in grant continuation awards69F

3 and $1.5 million in contracts for peer review and 

logistical support. Any funds not used for peer review are used for grant awards. To provide the 

flexibility IES needs to plan and administer a regular cycle of research competitions, the 

Administration requests that funding continue to be available for 2 years.

PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Available Funds 2023 2024 2025

Prior year carryover $13,158 $8,267 0

Current year appropriation 64,255 64,255 $64,255

Total 77,413 72,522 64,255

Output Measures70F

4 2023 2024 2025

NCSER Research Grants

Special Education Research Grants: Grant awards (new) $14,508 $16,923 $15,353

Special Education Research Grants: Grant awards (continuations) 53,593 54,131 47,416

Special Education Research Grants: Subtotal 68,101 71,054 62,769

Logistical support and Other 2 414 420

Peer review of new award applications 1,043 1,054 1,066

Carryover 8,267 0 0

Total 77,413 72,522 64,255

1 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/ncser_progs.asp 2 https://ies.ed.gov/ncser/research/trainingPrograms.asp 3 https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/index.asp 4 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for 2 years. 
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PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, 

program goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data; and an assessment of 

the progress made toward achieving program results. Achievement of results is based on the 

cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for this program as well as the resources 

and efforts invested by those served by the program. 

Goal: Transform education into an evidence-based field.

Objective: Raise the quality of research funded or conducted by the Department.

Measure: The percentage of projects that result in peer-reviewed publications.

Year Target Actual

2020 91% 86%

2021 88 86

2022 88 84

2023 86 86

2024 86 —

2025 86 —

Additional information: Peer-reviewed publications are an expected product of all research 

projects. NCSER has been funding research projects since 2006. Given the lag from time of 

award to completion of a study and the publication of results, the denominator for each reporting 

year is the cumulative number of grants that have been funded through the end of the fiscal 

year 3 years prior to the reporting year. For example, the percentage for fiscal year 2023 

reflects all projects funded from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2020 (the total of which is 443). 

Many projects funded during this timeframe were disrupted and subsequently delayed due to 

the COVID-19 pandemic. To account for the continued impact of the pandemic on project 

timelines and publication rates, the target for 2023 was lowered to 86 and will remain at 86 

through 2025.
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Measure: The number of NCSER-supported interventions with evidence of efficacy in improving 

education outcomes for students with or at risk for disabilities.

Year Target Actual

2020 55 57

2021 60 62

2022 63 65

2023 64 69

2024 68 —

2025 75 —

Additional information: Since 2006, NCSER has supported efficacy evaluations of fully 

developed interventions to determine whether they produce a beneficial impact on student 

education outcomes. This measure reflects the cumulative number of interventions NCSER has 

funded with evidence of meeting What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards and 

demonstrating positive effects on student outcomes as determined by the WWC reviewers.

Measure: The number of newly developed or modified interventions with evidence of promise 

for improving education outcomes for students with or at risk for disabilities. 

Year Target Actual

2020 66 68

2021 70 75

2022 77 80

2023 79 85

2024 85 —

2025 93 —

Additional information: NCSER also examines whether new interventions have promise to 

produce beneficial impacts on student education outcomes. This measure reflects the 

cumulative number of interventions NCSER has funded through Development and Innovation 

projects that show promise for improving student outcomes, which is defined as showing a 

statistically significant or substantively important positive association (0.25 standard deviation or 

larger) for at least one student outcome.
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Efficiency Measures

Measure: The average number of research grants administered per each program officer 

employed in the National Center for Special Education Research.

Year Target Actual

2020 40 50

2021 40 43

2022 35 38

2023 35 35

2024 35 —

2025 35 —

Additional information: The principal efficiency measure for IES is the ratio of research staff to 

research grants. These data are collected from the official grant files for NCSER. IES had kept 

the target at 40 for several years, believing that it represented an appropriate level of oversight 

and capacity. Upon further examination, including an analysis of program officer responsibilities 

besides grant monitoring, the target for 2022 has been reduced to 35 and will remain at 35 

through 2025.
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Statewide longitudinal data systems

(Educational Technical Assistance Act, Section 208)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined71F

1

Budget Authority:

Period of fund availability: 

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

Annual appropriation $38,50072F

2 $38,500 0

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Section 208 of the Educational Technical Assistance Act authorizes the Secretary to make 

competitive grants to State educational agencies (SEAs) to enable them to design, develop, and 

implement Statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) to manage, analyze, disaggregate, and 

use individual student data, efficiently and accurately, consistent with the Elementary and 

Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The goals of the program are to improve data quality, 

promote data linkages, encourage the accurate and timely generation of data for reporting and 

improving student educational opportunity and achievement, and facilitate research to close 

gaps in educational opportunity and improve student achievement and other outcomes.

The grants help SEAs develop, expand, or improve data systems, and may support necessary 

training, technical assistance, and other activities to promote the effective use of data. Funds 

must supplement, not supplant, other State or local funds used for developing State data 

systems and may not be used to support ongoing implementation and maintenance of such 

systems. The SLDS program is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics 

(NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES); grants are awarded competitively 

based on the technical quality of the proposals. 

The first round of grants was awarded in November 2005 and the eighth round in 2023. The 

activities supported have changed over time: early competitions focused on the infrastructure 

required for SEAs to develop their longitudinal data systems and to link K-12 data to early 

childhood education, postsecondary education, and workforce data, while the more recent 

competitions focused on States using their SLDS data to address high-priority policy issues. 

Beginning in fiscal year 2008, the Department of Education Appropriations Act authorized the 

program to use a portion of the appropriation for activities to improve data coordination and use; 

in recent years, the limit has been $6.0 million. In addition, the fiscal year 2009 Appropriations 

Act authorized the use of funds for SLDS that include postsecondary education and workforce 

information, and the fiscal year 2010 Appropriations Act added inclusion of information on 

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action. 2 The FY 2025 request includes a rescission of $10,000 thousand from FY 2024 funds expected to be carried over 

into FY 2025.
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children of all ages, including early childhood education, as an authorized activity. Since 2012, 

the Department has had the authority to use funds to link Statewide elementary and secondary 

data systems with early childhood education, postsecondary education, and workforce data 

systems, or to further develop such systems.

To date, 49 States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands have received awards to 

develop and implement longitudinal data systems. 

Funding levels for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $33,000

2021 33,500

2022 33,500

2023 38,500

2024 Annualized CR 38,500

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $38.5 million for Statewide Longitudinal Data 

Systems, level with a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 

appropriation. Of the requested funds, approximately $32.3 million would support the cohort of 

grants awarded in 2023. The request also includes the rescission of $10 million from funds 

originally appropriated to SLDS in fiscal year 2024 and remaining available in fiscal year 2025. 

As a significant amount of carryover funding has built up over time, a $10 million rescission 

would not have an impact on planned continuation awards in 2025.

Longitudinal data systems serve as a vital source of information for educators, parents, 

policymakers, researchers, and the public on the performance of schools and effective practices 

in education. The Department’s investment in the SLDS program supports States in answering 

key questions about education, such as whether students are ready for kindergarten, whether 

students are adequately prepared for postsecondary education, or whether students can earn a 

living after completing their degrees. NCES is specifically interested in helping states develop 

their capabilities to safely and productively link data to support additional uses. Data linking, 

storage, and use capacity in states has been a recent focus of the SLDS grant program and 

supported through resources provided to states such as the annual Stats-DC Conference, the 

Systems Design Toolkit, and the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS). NCES also 

continues to collaborate with other Federal agencies to provide resources to States. This focus 

was suggested by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics (NASEM) 

in Recommendation 4.4 of their 2022 report on “A Vision and Roadmap for Education 

Statistics.” 

Approximately $6 million would support national activities to improve data coordination, quality, 

and use. Since 2009 the national activities funding has been used to provide a broad array of 

technical assistance services to SEAs, including the ability to share nonproprietary products and 

best practices. Funds also support multi-state meetings, webinars, listservs, membership in 
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technical communities, enabling states to learn from each other, and additional State-specific 

technical assistance.73F

1

National activities funds would support the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), which 

would continue to serve as a valuable resource to State and local educational agencies, the 

postsecondary education community, and other parties engaged in building and using education 

data systems on issues related to the privacy, security, and confidentiality of student records. 

Protecting the privacy of individuals essential for data systems that rely on individual student 

data to assess the performance of education systems and improve educational opportunities 

and outcomes, including across student subgroups.74F

2

In addition, approximately $33 thousand would support NCES participation in the Access 4 

Learning Community (A4L). A4L is a nonprofit, membership group consisting of more than 

3,000 schools, districts, local authorities, states, other stakeholders in education information 

management. Membership provides access, for all ED staff, to information and learning 

resources on topics related to education data standards, implementing technical interoperability, 

and data privacy.

1 http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/index.asp. 2 https://tech.ed.gov/privacy/
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PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Available Funds 2023 2024 2025

Prior year carryover $27,532 $20,268 $19,586

Rescission of prior year carryover 0 0 -10,000

Current year appropriation 38,500 38,500 38,500

Total 66,032 58,768 48,086

Output Measures75F

1 2023 2024 2025

Funding for new grant awards $23,500 0 0

Funding for continuation grant awards $16,037 $33,198 $32,336

Privacy Technical Assistance Center $1,836 $1,782 $1,782

SLDS Technical Assistance $4,199 $4,008 $4,185

Access 4 Learning Community Membership $32 $32 $33

Scientific Peer review Management and 

Administration $160 $162 $164

Carryover $20,268 $19,586 $9,586

Total for Statewide longitudinal data systems $66,032 $58,768 $48,086

Number of new grant awards 28 0 0

Number of continuation grant awards 0 28 28

1 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for 2 years. This table reflects amounts obligated in 

each fiscal year and does not reflect the year in which funds were initially appropriated. As such, funds shown in any 

given column were obligated by the Department in the same fiscal year but may have been initially appropriated in 

multiple fiscal years.
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PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, 

program goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data; and an assessment of 

the progress made toward achieving program results. Achievement of results is based on the 

cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for this program as well as the resources 

and efforts invested by those served by the program. 

The Department established three performance measures that assess progress of all States, 

not just the SLDS grantees. The Department believes that assessing the progress of all States 

is appropriate because the goal of the program is to ensure that critical information needed to 

improve student opportunities and outcomes is available across the Nation.

Goal: To help States successfully implement longitudinal data systems to make informed 

decisions and improve instruction using data.

Objective: Increase the number of States implementing P-Workforce data systems.

Measure: Number of States linking K-12 data with early childhood data.

Year Target Actual

2020 38 40

2021 40 36

2022 42 36

2023 40 40

2024 40 —

2025 40 —

Additional information: States meet this measure if they can track all public pre-K students 

into public kindergarten and include at least one additional source of early childhood data (e.g., 

Head Start or private pre-K) in the State longitudinal data system. Beginning in 2021, NCES 

revised the SLDS measures to indicate whether a State has an automated infrastructure in 

place to link the data for each measure (early childhood, postsecondary, or workforce) with K-12 

data. Prior to that, States were asked if they were linking the data, which may have entailed 

manual linking of data on an ad hoc basis, for example.
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Measure: Number of States linking K-12 data with postsecondary data.

Year Target Actual

2020 46 37

2021 38 39

2022 40 40

2023 42 40

2024 42 —

2025 42 —

Additional information: States meet this measure if they can link State K-12 student data to 

State data from public 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education. 

Measure: Number of States linking K-12 data and postsecondary data with workforce data.

Year Target Actual

2020 31 25

2021 25 24

2022 27 28

2023 28 28

2024 28 —

2025 28 —

Additional information: States meet this measure if they can track all public 2- and 4-year 

postsecondary education students to, at a minimum, State employment records (e.g., State 

unemployment insurance systems). 
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Special education studies and evaluations

(Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Section 664)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined76F

1

Budget Authority:

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

$13,318 $13,318 0

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Special Education Studies and Evaluations program awards competitive grants, contracts, 

and cooperative agreements to assess the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities 

Education Act (IDEA) and the effectiveness of State and local efforts to provide special 

education and early intervention programs and services to infants, toddlers, children, and youth

with disabilities.

The statute authorizes the Department to support studies, evaluations, and assessments that:

• analyze the results achieved by State and local educational agencies to improve services for 

children and youth with disabilities;

• analyze State and local needs for professional development, parent training, and other 

activities that can reduce disciplinary actions involving children and youth with disabilities;

• measure educational and transitional services and outcomes for children and youth with 

disabilities, including children and youth of color with disabilities; and

• identify and report on the placement of children and youth with disabilities by disability 

category.

In addition, the Department is required to submit an annual report to Congress summarizing the 

studies and evaluations conducted under this authority; the research conducted under part E of 

the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (which authorizes research on special education); 

and the data on children and youth with disabilities required by section 618 of the IDEA. 

The IDEA requires the Secretary to delegate responsibility for most studies and evaluations in 

special education to the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). IES supports a 

range of evaluations that are designed to provide information about which programs and

practices are effective for improving outcomes for children and youth with disabilities, thereby 

providing clear guidance to educators, parents, and caregivers. Within IES, the National Center 

1 The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2011. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action.
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for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) has primary responsibility for 

managing the studies and evaluations under Section 664 of IDEA, except for longitudinal 

studies with special education components, such as the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 

which are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. NCEE consults with staff 

from the other IES research centers, including the National Center for Special Education 

Research, the Office of Special Education Programs, and other Administration policymakers to 

identify needs for new studies and the research questions that those studies would address. In 

some cases, NCEE has funded separate design contracts to identify options for new studies in 

particular areas.

Funding levels for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2020 $10,818

2021 11,318

2022 13,318

2023 13,318

2024 Annualized CR 13,318

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $13.3 million for Special Education Studies 

and Evaluations, level with a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 

appropriation. The request would support the following activities:

• Impact Evaluation of Transition Supports for Youth with Disabilities: This study, which began 

in September 2019, is a random-assignment evaluation focused on the effectiveness of two 

promising strategies to support the transition of students with disabilities beyond high 

school, a national priority emphasized by the IDEA. Both strategies have been promoted by 

the Department’s Office of Special Education Programs and focus on strengthening 

students’ goal setting, planning, and self-advocacy skills and helping them apply these selfdetermination skills. The first strategy is a systematic and coordinated version of an 

approach schools indicate they commonly use to teach these skills to students. The second 

strategy, which is more costly, adds tailored mentoring to help students apply these skills to 

enact their plans and take steps toward their goals.

• Impact Evaluation of Professional Development for General and Special Education 

Teachers to Improve Instruction and Academic Outcomes for Students with Disabilities:

Though students with disabilities are increasingly taught in general education classrooms, 

most general educators report needing more professional development on how to best 

teach students with disabilities and to draw on special educator expertise. This study, which 

began in 2022, is a random-assignment evaluation of professional development and 

technical assistance to help general and special educators to work together more effectively 

to improve instruction for all students, but particularly for those with an Individualized

Education Plan. 
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• What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Reports: The WWC reviews existing research on 

different programs, products, practices, and policies in education to provide educators with 

the information they need to make evidence-based decisions. Data on the use of information 

on the WWC website shows that there is extensive demand for WWC products focused on 

students with disabilities. Two examples are the Practice Guides on “Assisting Students 

Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades” released in March 

2021 (https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/26) and on “Providing Reading 

Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9” (https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/29). 

Possible topics for future guides include providing English language and literacy 

interventions to students in Kindergarten through Grade 3.

• Study of Special Education Expenditures: Drawing on exploratory work currently underway, 

in late 2023 the Department commenced a Study of Special Education Expenditures. This 

study, the first national comprehensive study of special education expenditures in over two 

decades, will examine how much and how funds support the education of students with 

disabilities including, for example, the number of school personnel funded with federal 

special education appropriations. It will provide up-to-date estimates of special education 

investments such as instructional support services, other special education support services 

and activities, and transportation. The study will also examine emerging topics such as how 

districts identified for significant disproportionality are spending coordinating early 

intervening services (CEIS) funds, and funding gaps that will help inform policy decisions at 

the Federal, State, and local levels.
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PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

(dollars in thousands)

Output Measures77F

1 2023 2024 2025

Impact Evaluation of Transition Supports for Youth 

with Disabilities $7,189 $11,288 $4,957

Impact Evaluation of Professional Development for 

General and Special Education Teachers to 

Improve Instruction and Academic Outcomes for 

Students with Disabilities 0 0 3,000

What Works Clearinghouse Special Education Reports 1,000 0 1,000

National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012, Phase 2 8 0 0

Interagency Agreement with Census for National 

Longitudinal Transition Study 2012, Phase 2 100 0 0

Multi-tiered Systems of Support for Reading in Early 

Elementary School78F

2 0 0 0

Study of Special Education Expenditures 2,000 2,000 4,361

IDEA Implementation Study Products 1,059 0 0

Implementation of Common Strategies to Support the 

Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in General 

Education Classrooms 1,858 0 0

Advancement of the Special Education Evaluation 

Portfolio 105 30 0

 Total79F

3 13,318 13,318 13,318

1 Funds from any single fiscal year’s appropriation may be used for 2 years. The table provides estimates of the 

amounts from each year’s appropriation that will be used for each area, not the amount obligated in each of those 

years. 

2 No IDEA funding will be used for this study from the FY 2023, FY 2024 or FY 2025 appropriations. All remaining 

actions will use ESEA Section 8601 pooled evaluation funding.

3 Amounts may not add to the total due to rounding.
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IES program administration

(Education Sciences Reform Act)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined80F

1

Budget Authority: 

Period of fund availability: 

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

Personnel Compensation and 

Benefits Costs

$45,702 $50,928 +$5,226

Non-Personnel Costs $27,798 $29,922 +$2,124

Total $73,500 $80,850 +$7,350

FTE 221 236 +15

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) sets out the organizational structure, mission, and 

functions of IES and each of its four centers—the National Center for Education Research 

(NCER), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Center for Education 

Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), and the National Center for Special Education 

Research (NCSER). The work of these centers is supported by staff in the offices of the 

Director, the Deputy Director for Administration and Policy, and the Deputy Director for Science.

The core work of IES under ESRA comprises these functions:

• Conduct and support research, development, statistics, evaluation, and dissemination;

• Disseminate education research findings and results of education research;

• Promote the development and application of knowledge gained from research;

• Strengthen the national capacity to conduct, develop, and disseminate education 

research;

• Promote the coordination, development, and dissemination of education research in the 

Department and the Federal Government; and

• Promote the application of research and development to improve learner outcomes 

across the lifespan.

1The GEPA extension expired September 30, 2009. Reauthorization for FY 2025 is expected through appropriations 

action. 
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Funding levels for the past 3 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands) Footnotes

2022 $67,093

2023 73,500

2024 Annualized CR 73,500

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

For fiscal year 2025, the Administration requests $80.9 million for IES Program Administration, 

$7.4 million more than a fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 

appropriation. Funds would support an FTE level of 236 and provide resources necessary for 

IES to deliver on its statutory and regulatory mandates. The FTE level of 236 includes the 

199 FTE under Personnel Compensation and Benefits (PC&B) and 37 FTE under the 

Department’s Centralized Services described in the sections below.

Personnel Compensation and Benefits—IES 

The PC&B request of $43.5 million for IES staff is $5.0 million more than the fiscal year 2024 

annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. The fiscal year 2025 Request will 

support PC&B costs associated with an FTE level of 199 FTE for IES. The request also 

incorporates a proposed 2.0 percent pay raise for January 2025 and projected benefits 

increases. The 15 additional FTE included in this request will assist IES in fulfilling its mission of 

providing rigorous evidence on which to ground education practice and policy. Specifically, a 

portion of the additional FTE would support the duties of the Evaluation Officer and support 

implementation of Title I of the Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act of 2018. 

Non-Personnel Costs, excluding Departmental Centralized Services

The Non-Personnel Costs request of $16 million is $800 thousand more than the fiscal year 

2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal year 2023 appropriation. This increase mostly 

supports additional funds for EDFacts in Information Technology Services/Contracts, which 

comprise the largest part of the IES non-personnel budget. 

Department’s Centralized Services (overhead)

The IES fiscal year 2025 share of the Department’s Centralized Services (overhead) is 

$21.4 million, $1.6 million more than the fiscal year 2024 annualized CR based on the fiscal 

year 2023 appropriation. Of the total amount, $7.5 million is for the PC&B costs of 37 FTE for 

centralized services (e.g., human resources support, facilities management), and $13.9 million 

is for centralized non-pay. The increase covers the 2.0 percent pay raise for centralized FTE as 

well as increases in enterprise cybersecurity. Centralized services cover overhead costs such 

as rent; departmental training; personnel security; records information management support 

services; interagency agreements for administrative services provided by other Federal 

Agencies, such as payroll processing, overtime utilities, training coordination and career 

counseling; IT security; telecommunications; computers and related hardware; smartphones; IT 

processing services; and network support.
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Account Summary Table

Select here for the online version

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FISCAL YEAR 2025 PRESIDENT'S BUDGET

(in thousands of dollars)

Cat 

Code

2023

Appropriation

2024

Annualized CR 2025 Request

FY 2025 Request 

Compared to FY 2024 

Annualized CR: Amount

FY 2025 Request 

Compared to FY 2024 

Annualized CR: Percent

Institute of Education Sciences

1. Research and statistics:

(a) Research, development, and dissemination (ESRA I-A, B and D, except section 174) D 245,000 245,000 245,000 0 0.00%

(b) Statistics (ESRA I-C) D 121,500 121,500 121,500 0 0.00%

2. Regional educational laboratories (ESRA section 174) D 58,733 58,733 58,733 0 0.00%

3. Assessment (NAEPAA):

(a) National assessment (section 303) D 185,000 185,000 185,000 0 0.00%

(b) National Assessment Governing Board (section 302) D 7,799 7,799 8,299 500 6.41%

Subtotal 192,799 192,799 193,299 500 0.26%

4. Research in special education (ESRA, Part E) D 64,255 64,255 64,255 0 0.00%

5. Statewide longitudinal data systems (ETAA section 208) D 38,500 38,500 38,500 0 0.00%

6. Special education studies and evaluations (IDEA, section 664) D 13,318 13,318 13,318 0 0.00%

7. Program Administration D 73,500 73,500 80,850 7,350 10.00%

Total D 807,605 807,605 815,455 7,850 0.97%

NOTES:

1) D = discretionary program; M = mandatory programs

2) Detail may not add to totals due to rounding.