IES Blog

Institute of Education Sciences

Spend Five Minutes Getting to Know IES

By Dana Tofig, Communications Director, IES
 
At the Institute of Education Sciences, we sometimes describe ourselves as the country’s “engine” that powers high-quality education statistics, research, and evaluation, or as the “infrastructure” that supports a steady supply of scientific evidence in education.  
 
But many users of IES resources are familiar with just a small slice of what we sponsor to provide quality evidence in education and support for its use across the country. While they may have heard of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the What Works Clearinghouse, or the ERIC database of research, studies, and periodicals, they may not know that all those programs, and many more, are housed under one roof at IES. 
 
To help people better understand our work and see how it is connected, we have developed a new video that gives an overview of IES and the six broad types of work that we do.  The video runs just under five minutes, so it doesn’t touch on everything, but it does give a good introduction to IES and our work to connect research to practice. 
 

Please share the video with friends and colleagues who might be interested in the work of IES. In the coming months, we will release additional videos that delve further into each of our focus areas.
 
This video is part of our ongoing efforts to ramp up our communication and dissemination efforts, including the launch of a new, mobile friendly website design and an IES Facebook page where you can get information about the latest reports, resources, and grant opportunities. In the fall, IES will also launch a new What Works Clearinghouse website, which will include an improved "Find What Works" tool. This will make it easier for educators to search for and compare the research about the effectiveness of interventions in education.
 
We are here to serve the public – and we always want to get better at what we do! If you have thoughts or ideas for how we can improve our communication and dissemination efforts, please send an email to dana.tofig@ed.gov.
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