Institute of Education Sciences; Notice inviting comments on priorities to be proposed to the National Board for Education Sciences of the Institute of Education Sciences [IES]

FR Doc 05-11921
[Federal Register: June 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 115)]
[Notices]
[Page 35072-35073]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16jn05-31]

[[Page 35072]]

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Notice Inviting Comments on Priorities To Be Proposed to the
National Board for Education Sciences of the Institute of Education
Sciences

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice inviting comments on priorities to be proposed to the
National Board for Education Sciences of the Institute of Education
Sciences.

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SUMMARY: The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences
(Institute) has developed priorities to guide the work of the
Institute. The National Board for Education Sciences (Board) must
approve the priorities, but before proposing the priorities to the
Board, the Director must seek public comment on the priorities. The
public comments will be provided to the Board prior to its action on
the priorities.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before August 16, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed priorities to
Elizabeth Payer, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of
Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., room 602c, Washington, DC 20208.
If you prefer to send your comments through the Internet, use the
following address: elizabeth.payer@ed.gov. We encourage you to submit
comments electronically to ensure timely receipt. We also ask that you
include:
(1) ``Comment on Proposed Priorities of the Institute'' in the
subject line of your e-mail message;
(2) Your name, title, organization, postal address, telephone
number, and the full text of your comments in your e-mail message; and
(3) As an attachment to your e-mail message, the full text of your
comments without your name, title, organization and contact
information, so that we may more easily compile all of the comments we
receive for review by members of the National Board for Education
Sciences.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Payer. Telephone: (202) 219-
1310.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.

Invitation To Comment

We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed
priorities. To ensure that your comments have maximum effect in
developing the final priorities, we urge you to identify clearly the
specific proposed priority that each comment addresses.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about these proposed priorities in room 602c, 555 New Jersey
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.,
Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week except Federal
holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Record

On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public
record for these proposed priorities. If you want to schedule an
appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9516) requires
that the Director of the Institute propose to the Board priorities for
the Institute. The Director is to identify topics that require long
term research and topics that are focused on understanding and solving
education problems and issues, including those associated with the
goals and requirements established in the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act, as amended by the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act of 2004; the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001; and the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, such as closing
the achievement gap; ensuring that all children have the ability to
obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on
State standards and assessments; and ensuring access to, and
opportunities for, postsecondary education.
Before submitting proposed priorities to the Board, the Director
must make the priorities available to the public for comment for not
less than 60 days. Each comment submitted must be provided to the
Board.
The Director anticipates submitting to the Board proposed
priorities for the Institute at its next meeting to be held on
September 6-7, 2005.
The Board must approve or disapprove the priorities for the
Institute proposed by the Director, including any necessary revision of
the priorities. Approved priorities are to be transmitted to
appropriate congressional committees by the Board.
The Director will publish in the Federal Register the Institute's
plan for addressing the priorities and make it available for comment
for not less than 60 days.

Proposed Priorities

The long-term goals associated with the Institute's priorities are
threefold: First, to develop or identify a substantial number of
programs, practices, policies, and approaches that are effective in
enhancing academic achievement, and that are widely deployed and well-
implemented; second, to identify what does not work and what is
problematic, and thereby encourage innovation and further research; and
third, to develop dissemination strategies and sources of information
on the results of education research that are routinely used by
policymakers, educators, and the general public when making education
decisions. By providing an independent, scientific base of evidence,
the Institute aims to further the transformation of education into an
evidence-based field, and thereby enable the nation to educate all of
its students in an effective manner.
In pursuit of its goals, the Institute will support research,
conduct evaluations, and compile statistics in education that conform
to rigorous scientific standards, and will disseminate and promote the
use of research in forms and through activities that are objective,
free of bias in their interpretation, and readily accessible. Given
these goals, we invite you to submit comments regarding the priorities
proposed here.
The Institute's over-arching priority is research that contributes
to improved academic achievement for all students, and particularly for
those students whose education prospects are hindered by inadequate
education services and conditions associated with poverty, race/
ethnicity, limited English proficiency, disability, and family
circumstance.
With academic achievement as the major priority, the Institute will
focus on outcomes that differ by periods of education. In the infancy
and preschool period, the outcomes of interest will be those that
enhance readiness for schooling, for example, language skills. In
kindergarten through 12th grade, the

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core academic outcomes of reading and writing, mathematics, and science
will be emphasized, as will discipline and social interactions within
schools that support learning. At the post-secondary level, the focus
will be on enrollment in and completion of programs that prepare
students for rewarding and constructive careers. The same outcomes are
emphasized for students with disabilities across each of these periods.
The acquisition of basic skills by adults with low levels of education
is also of interest, as is the learning of skills that support
independent living for individuals with significant cognitive
disabilities.
In conducting research on factors that affect the academic outcomes
on which it focuses, the Institute will concentrate on conditions that
are within the control of the education system, with the aim of
identifying, developing, and validating effective education programs,
practices, policies, and approaches. Conditions that are of greatest
interest to the Institute are in the areas of curriculum, instruction,
assessment, the quality of the teaching and administrative workforce,
and the systems and policies that affect these factors and their
interrelationships, such as accountability systems and education
options for parents.
The successful pursuit of the Institute's goals and priorities
requires increased capacity to produce and use rigorous education
research. To that end, the Institute's priorities include support of
doctoral and post-doctoral training in the education sciences,
development and refinement of education research methods, and expansion
for research purposes of longitudinal databases that link individual
student data to information on conditions that can affect student
outcomes, such as curriculum. To assure increased capacity to use and
apply the results of research, the Institute will support systematic
reviews of evidence, enhanced access to findings through advanced
electronic systems, and outreach to parents, educators, students,
policymakers, and the general public.
These are not exclusive or absolute priorities: To the extent that
resources permit and the Institute's priorities are being adequately
addressed, the Institute may address other important education issues.

Intergovernmental Review

This program is not subject to Executive Order 12372 and the
regulations in 34 CFR part 79.

Electronic Access to This Document

You may view this document, as well as all other documents of this
Department published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable
Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister
.

To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
You may also view this document in text [Word and PDF] at the
following site: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/news.html.

Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html
.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number does not apply.)

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 9501 et seq.

Dated: June 13, 2005.
Grover J. Whitehurst,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
[FR Doc. 05-11921 Filed 6-15-05; 8:45 am]

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