Overview of IES Research and Research Training Grant Programs
The Institute supports the following research and research training programs:
In conducting research on academic outcomes, the Institute concentrates on conditions within the control of the education system, with the aim of identifying, developing, and validating effective education programs, practices, policies, and approaches as well as understanding the factors that influence variation in their effectiveness such as implementation. Conditions that are of highest priority to the Institute are in the areas of curriculum, instruction, assessment (including the identification of students with disabilities), the quality of the education workforce, and the systems and policies that affect these conditions and their interrelationships (for example, accountability systems, delivery mechanisms including technology, and policies that support the ability of parents to improve educational results for their children through such means as choice of education services and provision of school-related learning opportunities in the home).
The Institute's 12 education research programs are
The Institute's 11 long-term special education research programs are
Across these research programs, the Institute supports projects to: (a) explore relations among variables in order to identify malleable factors predictive of achievement and potentially amenable to intervention, practices that are associated with student outcomes, or factors and conditions that may mediate or moderate the relations between student outcomes and these programs and practices; (b) develop programs, practices, and policies that are theoretically and empirically based; (c) evaluate the efficacy of fully developed programs, practices, and policies; (d) evaluate the impact of programs, practices, and policies implemented at scale; and (e) develop and validate new measurement systems and tools or validate existing measurement instruments.
The Institute has established its predoctoral and postdoctoral research training programs in the education sciences to increase the supply of scientists and researchers in education who are prepared to conduct rigorous evaluation studies, develop and evaluate new products and approaches that are grounded in a science of learning, and design and validate tests and measures. The specific intent of these programs is to prepare researchers who are able to prepare competitive proposals that address relevant education topics (e.g., reading, mathematics, behaviors that support learning in school, teacher quality, education policies) and meet the methodological requirements specified for the Institute's research grant competitions.
The Institute's research training grant programs are