U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today the major reorganization of the department's program evaluation and data collections services. This move is a shift away from a compliance model toward a system of research and evaluation focused on results and specific effective education interventions.

"We spend millions of dollars every year to collect data on and evaluate our programs," Paige said. "This is a serious effort to provide more value for the taxpayer's dollars in these activities. We aim to establish a more efficient data collection and dissemination system, one that provides timely and more useful information to those who work every day to improve student achievement."

A major piece of this new approach to program evaluation is the Performance-Based Data Management Initiative.

This initiative, first proposed in the department's FY 2003 budget submission to Congress, would consolidate the department's myriad data collections—some of which still use pencil and paper—and replace them with a centralized, consolidated, electronic system. This initiative aims to dramatically reduce the reporting burden on elementary and secondary schools, while gathering much better data about program effectiveness.

In addition, the department's Planning and Evaluation Service will be reconstituted as the Policy and Program Studies Service (PPSS), but will continue to produce descriptive studies of program implementation, and will commission occasional policy papers on important topics.

"This new office (PPSS) will still have the responsibility of providing descriptive implementation studies," said Under Secretary Eugene Hickok. "But we also envision it as the department's 'think tank,' to serve as an incubator of new policy ideas for more effective teaching and learning."

Another aspect of the reorganization will focus on field trials of department-funded initiatives. For example, rather than just studying the Title I program itself, the department will also conduct rigorous field trials of education interventions, such as comprehensive school models and reading programs, funded through the Title I program. These new studies will seek to identify, through rigorous methodology, "what works" in education.

These field trials will be conducted by a new evaluation unit within the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI).

"Through these evaluations, we hope to get a better handle on what specific education interventions lead to increased student achievement and better learning environments," said OERI Assistant Secretary Grover "Russ" Whitehurst.

Paige said the new changes are scheduled to be implemented as soon as possible.

Details of the departments new data collection and program evaluation plans may be viewed in the publication New Directions for Program Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Education at our Web site at http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2002/04/evaluation.html.

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