Board Activities
Evaluation of IES
NBES is required to prepare a report to the Director of IES, the Secretary of Education, and the appropriate congressional committees that will provide recommendations on actions that might be taken to enhance the ability of IES to carry out its priorities and mission. The Board has undertaken an evaluation of the Institute of Education Sciences with the assistance of its contractor, Synergy Enterprises, Inc.
The primary goal of the evaluation is to determine the extent to which IES has been effective in carrying out its priorities and mission. The key objectives of the evaluation are to
- provide valid and reliable evidence related to the Institute's effectiveness, progress, and overall impact, within the available timeframe and scope of work;
- provide the groundwork for future evaluations and the collection of ongoing performance data that can be used to measure the Institute's progress over time; and
- provide policy and program recommendations based on the findings to enhance the ability of the Institute to carry out its priorities and mission.
The evaluation will achieve these objectives by focusing on three central IES goals: increasing rigor, increasing relevance, and increasing utilization of Institute research. The evaluation report is designed to provide input that the Board can use in advising Congress regarding reauthorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA).
NBES Resolutions
NBES passed the following resolutions to add value to the work of IES. (See Appendix B for a list of NBES-approved resolutions since its inception.)
Oversight Function in the Awards Process
At its January 2008 meeting, the Board resolved that: "the Board will review and advise the IES Director on grant awards where the proposed grantee is selected out of rank order of applicant scores that result from peer review for scientific merit." The intention of the motion was to create transparency regarding situations in which an exception is made. No such exception has been made to date.
Family Educational Rights and Privace Act (FERPA)
The need for research-based information has grown exponentially since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, Statewide Longitudinal Research Grants are producing a vast accumulation of data that could yield invaluable information about policies that would improve student achievement, including approaches to helping chronically underperforming schools and enhancing teacher effectiveness. To mine those data, researchers need access to them. A potential obstacle to this access is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, also known as the Buckley Amendment. The intent of the Act is to protect the rights of students and to ensure the privacy and accuracy of education records. The Act applies to all institutions that receive federal aid administered by the Secretary of Education.
State education agencies and local school districts have been uncertain about when and how education records can be provided for research because of confusion over how FERPA applies to protecting the data.
NBES recognizes the challenges in simultaneously protecting individual privacy and accessing data for research activities. The Board supports changes that represent an appropriate balance between preserving students' privacy, promoting their safety, and facilitating research and accountability that will help ensure a quality education system. Board member Eric Hanushek summarized the issue as follows:
In order to meet the goals of NCLB and to improve the performance of our schools, we must be able to provide states and districts with information about effective policies and programs, and that requires learning from the experiences of districts that are doing a good job. The administrative data on programs and student achievement provide just such an opportunity—and one that was in fact anticipated in FERPA, which included exceptions to general restrictions on data access for research that would promote school improvements. The challenge has been implementing these provisions in ways that simultaneously provide protection for confidentiality of the individual student data.
In March 2008, the Department of Education released draft regulations designed to clarify access and use of student-level administrative data that are protected by FERPA. These regulations have gone through a formal comment period but have yet to be finalized. At the May 2008 meeting of the Board, there was an extensive discussion of FERPA, the proposed regulations, and the accompanying guidance that had been released by the Department of Education. The following resolutions related to FERPA and support of greater access to data were passed by NBES:
Action # 1
"The Board commends the Secretary and the Department of Education for moving forward in developing new regulations and guidance about how to maintain confidentiality of educational data under FERPA while also providing for research uses of student and school data. We urge the Department to finalize these regulations quickly, incorporating the major clarifications that have been submitted in comments."
Action #2
"We urge the Congress to expand on the program of supporting statewide longitudinal data systems by requiring that states accepting funding under this program agree to make data in these systems available to qualified researchers (subject to FERPA) for the purpose of research that is intended to help improve student achievement."
Next Steps
Next Board Meeting
The NBES will hold its next meeting September 9 and 10, 2008, in Washington, DC.
5-Year Report
The Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) is set to expire in October 2008. At the May 2008 NBES meeting, members approved recommendations to enhance ESRA upon reauthorization. In fall 2008, the Board expects to submit to the Director, the Secretary, and the appropriate congressional committees a report that will include recommendations regarding any actions that may be taken to enhance the ability of the Institute to carry out its priorities and mission, including recommendations for the reauthorization of ESRA.