In October, 2016, the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) convened a group of experts to gain insights and advice on how best to support the advancement of evidence beyond an efficacy study. The discussion followed five topics of inquiry: (1) What should effectiveness studies accomplish? What are the challenges of initiating and completing an effectiveness study? (2) What steps are needed to encourage more replication research? (3) How can we advance our understanding of causal mechanisms and the variability of impacts? (4) How can IES training programs support the advancement of evidence beyond efficacy? (5) What is the most important thing IES can do to support the advancement of evidence once we have established efficacy? Technical working group members made substantive suggestions about how to deepen and broaden the high-quality research supported by IES. This report summarizes the IES staff presentations and participant discussions.
