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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 9 (Thursday, January 13, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2146-2148]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-00627]

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket ID ED-2022-IES-1]

Request for Information on Effective Interventions To Improve 
Middle School Science Achievement and Mathematics Achievement in Grades 
3 Through 5 for Students With Disabilities

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional 
Assistance (NCEE) at the U.S. Department of Education's (Department) 
Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is charged by Congress to 
identify and encourage the use of evidence-based practices in 
education. Through this request for information (RFI), NCEE seeks 
public input about the characteristics of middle school science and 
upper elementary mathematics interventions as well as information on 
publicly available research describing their efficacy. Feedback from 
developers of such interventions would be of particular value to the 
Department.

DATES: We must receive your comments by February 14, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Submit your response to this RFI through the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal. We will not accept submissions by postal mail, 
commercial mail, hand delivery, fax, or email. To ensure that we do not 
receive duplicate copies, please submit your comments only once. In 
addition, please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to submit 
your comments electronically. Information on using Regulations.gov, 
including instructions for accessing agency documents, submitting 
comments, and

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viewing the docket, is available on the site under the ``FAQ'' tab.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy for comments received from 
members of the public is to make these submissions available for public 
viewing in their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include 
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly 
available. We encourage, but do not require, that each respondent 
include his or her name, title, institution or affiliation, and the 
name, title, mailing and email addresses, and telephone number of a 
contact person for his or her institution or affiliation, if any.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matthew Soldner, Commissioner, 
National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance & 
Agency Evaluation Officer, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. 
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 4160, Potomac 
Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-7240. Telephone: (202) 245-8385. 
Email: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll-free, at 1-
800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background:

    As evidenced by recent results from the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress (NAEP), too many of the Nation's students struggle 
with building foundational skills in science (see https://go.usa.gov/xehQC) and math (see https://go.usa.gov/xehQY). The problem is 
particularly acute among student groups that education systems have 
historically underserved.
    In NAEP's 2019 assessment of twelfth graders' science proficiency, 
69 percent of Black students, 56 percent of Hispanic students, 58 
percent of Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students, and 51 
percent of American Indian/Alaska Native students were identified as 
``Below NAEP Basic.'' On the same assessment, 75 percent of twelfth 
grade students with disabilities demonstrated proficiency ``Below NAEP 
Basic,'' a rate double that of their peers not identified with a 
disability. These results signal a need to intervene early in students' 
academic careers, with the aim of increasing the likelihood that 
students are scientifically literate by the time they leave high 
school.
    For many students, mastery of foundational math skills is also a 
significant challenge. The success of students with disabilities is of 
particular concern. In 2017, 54 percent of fourth graders with 
disabilities scored ``Below NAEP Basic'' in math, compared to only 15 
percent of students without disabilities. Students entering fourth 
grade with poor whole number knowledge are more likely to struggle in 
later grades than their peers with a better 
understanding,1 2 and it is in fourth grade where curricula 
increasingly focus on rational numbers and fractions.\3\ Not developing 
proficiency in these domains has negative and long-term implications 
for students. In addition to being critical to life skills including 
personal finance, cooking, and healthcare, this knowledge is critical 
to later mathematical learning, including algebra.
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    \1\ Barbieri, C.A., Rodrigues, J., Dyson, N., & Jordan, N.C. 
(2020). Improving fraction understanding in sixth graders with 
mathematics difficulties: Effects of a number line approach combined 
with cognitive learning strategies. Journal of Educational 
Psychology, 112(3), 628.
    \2\ Namkung, J.M., Fuchs, L.S., & Koziol, N. (2018). Does 
initial learning about the meaning of fractions present similar 
challenges for students with and without adequate whole-number 
skill? Learning and Individual Differences, 61, 161-167. 
doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2017.11.018
    \3\ Siegler, R.S., Duncan, G.J., Davis-Kean, P.E., Duckworth, 
K., Claessens, A., Engel, M., Susperreguy, M.I., & Chen, M. (2012). 
Early predictors of high school mathematics achievement. 
Psychological Science, 23, 691-697. doi:10.1177/0956797612440101
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    As part of its continuing effort to respond to disruptions caused 
by the COVID-19 pandemic, IES plans to promote the advancement and 
testing of programs and products (interventions) that can improve 
students' proficiency in science and mathematics. We are particularly 
interested in (1) interventions that can improve middle grades 
students' science achievement, particularly among students in the 
lowest quartile of proficiency regardless of disability status; and (2) 
digital interventions that can improve the math proficiency of third to 
fifth grade students with or at risk of developing disabilities, with 
an emphasis on the domains of whole numbers, rational numbers, and 
fractions. Through this RFI, IES is seeking information from developers 
and program providers about relevant interventions. This includes 
interventions that developers and program providers believe are already 
wholly responsive to the needs identified above as well as those that 
could be responsive to these needs if modified slightly.
    When responding to this RFI, developers or program providers 
intending to serve students ``at risk'' of developing a disability 
should clearly identify the disability or disability categories that 
proposed beneficiaries are at risk of developing and specific factors 
that place them at heightened risk. The determination may include, for 
example, factors used for moving children and youth to higher tiers in 
a Response-to-Intervention model. Factors based solely on general 
population characteristics, such as labeling a student ``at risk'' for 
disabilities because they are from low-income families or are English 
language learners, are not sufficient for this purpose.
    This is a request for information only. This RFI is not a request 
for proposals (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or a notice inviting 
applications. This RFI does not commit the Department to contract for 
any supply or service whatsoever. Further, we are not seeking proposals 
and will not accept unsolicited proposals. The Department will not pay 
for any information or administrative costs that you may incur in 
responding to this RFI. The documents and information submitted in 
response to this RFI will not be returned.
    We will review every comment, and, as described above, electronic 
comments in response to this RFI will be publicly available on the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Please note that IES 
will not directly respond to comments.

Solicitation of Comments

    We invite developers or program providers with interventions 
relevant to improved achievement in (1) middle school science, or (2) 
upper elementary math with an emphasis on students with or at risk of 
developing a disability to share the following in their comments:
    (1) The name of their intervention;
    (2) The curricular focus of their intervention (i.e., middle school 
science or upper elementary math);
    (3) A brief description of the intervention, potentially including 
(a) its major components and pedagogical features, (b) its delivery 
modality (e.g., face-to-face; via an online platform accessed through a 
browser or mobile app), (c) its intended duration and intensity (e.g., 
60 minutes, three times a week, for six weeks), and (d) the extent to 
which information on student progress is available for educators and 
family members/caretakers;
    (4) The extent to which the intervention, as it is currently 
available, focuses on improving the proficiency of diverse groups of 
students, particularly

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(a) low-performing students and (b) students with or at risk of 
developing a disability;
    (5) The extent to which the intervention is accessible to students 
with disabilities;
    (6) If available, a link or links to publicly available information 
about the outcomes associated with the intervention's use, including 
third-party evaluations; and
    (7) If available, a link or links to web pages that provide 
additional relevant detail about the intervention, such as information 
about its cost or its developers.
    The Institute is committed to improving the public's access to, and 
the discoverability of, research on the efficacy of education 
interventions. In service of that goal, we invite developers who have 
commissioned studies of their interventions' efficacy and who hold 
copyright to those studies, or their authorized representatives, to 
consider depositing eligible content into ERIC: the Institute of 
Education Sciences' bibliographic and full-text database of education 
research (https://eric.ed.gov/). More information about submitting 
content to ERIC, including our selection policy and how to access the 
online submission portal, can be found at https://eric.ed.gov/submit/.
    Accessible Format: On request to the program contact person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities 
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will 
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich 
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file, 
braille, large print, audiotape, or compact disc, or other accessible 
format.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can view this 
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published 
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To 
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at 
the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

Mark Schneider,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
[FR Doc. 2022-00627 Filed 1-12-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
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