2011 National Board for Education Sciences Annual Report
Chair's Message

Since the Institute of Education Sciences was established by Congress in 2002, it has made remarkable progress toward a goal that many of us on the Board and in the larger policy community had hoped for: building a sizable body of scientifically valid evidence about "what works" in education. For example, IES has sponsored more than 20 large randomized field experiments to assess the effectiveness of roughly 100 different educational programs, practices, and strategies ("interventions"). Because of these and other IES-funded studies, we now have—for the first time—convincing evidence about the impact of these interventions on key educational outcomes.

Of particular importance, we now have several examples of interventions that produce sizable positive effects—such as a college financial aid simplification program for low- and moderate-income families with children approaching college age. A large, multi-site field trial, co-funded by IES and other government and philanthropic funders, found that the program increased college enrollment the following fall by more than 25 percent.¹ Such evidence has been a critical missing piece that policy officials and practitioners need in order to improve educational and life outcomes for U.S. children. Given IES's scientific expertise and independence, we believe it is uniquely positioned to provide this essential evidence, and thereby help bring sustained progress to American education.

—Jon Baron