Through the Education Research and Development Center (R&D Center) program (84.305C), the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) supports R&D centers that conduct research and provide national leadership on key education issues that face our nation. These centers have greater resources than are available through the Education Research Grants program ( 84.305A) to tackle understudied but critically important topics and create innovative solutions that could be deployed at scale.
In 2024, IES invited applications to establish one or more R&D Centers focused on Using Generative Artificial Intelligence to Augment Teaching and Learning in Classrooms (U-GAIN Center). IES funded four R&D Centers. Recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have created opportunities to explore and develop new types of AI driven education technologies that have the potential to reshape the work of educators with tools to augment teacher practice and tools to directly support student learning. Through its focused program of research, the funded U-GAIN Centers will (1) conduct at least one exploratory study to examine how generative AI is currently used in classrooms to improve teaching and learning outcomes, (2) informed by the exploratory study, develop at least one new or revise one existing educator- and/or learner facing generative AI tool designed for use in classrooms, and (3) conduct a pilot study to assess the promise of the newly developed/revised generative AI tool for improving learners' education outcomes. In addition to the focused program of research, IES expects the U-GAIN Centers to provide national leadership on the responsible use of generative AI to improve learner outcomes.
The four U-GAIN Centers are:
National Center on Generative AI for Uplifting STEM+C Education (GENIUS Center) (R305C240010)
This Center aims to transform education through the development of a GenAI learning agent, GenAgent, to address the need for robust interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computing (STEM+C) education for middle school students. GenAgent will serve as a mentor, learning buddy, collaborative learning agent, and teacher assistant to promote six key middle school science and engineering practices. Participating teachers and their students will come from middle schools in five states: Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee, and California.
AmplifyGAIN: Generative AI for Transformative Learning (R305C240012)
This Center focuses on the use of GenAI to enhance mathematics and science teaching and learning in K-12 schools. They will conduct exploratory studies and longitudinal, nationwide surveys of teachers to discover use scenarios and refine theories of change about how GenAI tools can transform math and science teaching and learning. This will inform the development and implementation of Colleague AI—an AI-enhanced assistant—to empower teachers to compose rigorous, engaging, and inclusive lesson materials, conduct formative classroom assessments, and automatically score and generate diagnostic reports to personalize student feedback. Research on Colleague AI will be conducted primarily in Washington state school districts.
The Using Generative AI for Reading R&D Center (U-GAIN Reading) (R305C240040)
This Center will investigate how to integrate GenAI, aligned to scientific evidence about reading, to achieve strong, equitable gains for diverse elementary school students, with a specific focus on English learners (ELs). This research will generate (a) new knowledge about how to use generative AI to create content that matches each student's interests and strengths, enable dialogues about the meaning of content, and adapt to a student's progress and needs; (b) evidence about the benefits to ELs and all students of implementing this knowledge in a scalable reading platform; and (c) national leadership on how to support and sustain active reading among ELs in an age of AI. Research will take place in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Texas.
Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI): Innovating Beginning Reading Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners (R305C240046)
This Center will explore how to harness the transformative power of GenAI to innovate K-2 beginning reading materials and support for independent reading. CELaRAI will focus on research and development of AI Reading Enhancer (AIRE), a student-facing tool to generate personalized text (AIRE Text Generator), conduct real-time reading analysis (AIRE Reading Analysis), and provide just-in-time literacy support (AIRE Text Enhancer). This project will take place in urban and suburban public elementary schools in New York, Michigan, and North Carolina that serve culturally and linguistically diverse students from low- to mid-socioeconomic-status families.