Commissioners' Welcome

Welcome to the 2020 Annual Principal Investigators Meeting! Our theme this year, Closing the Gaps for All Learners, underscores IES's objective to support research that improves equity in access to education and education outcomes. Rigorous research can help identify, measure, and address persistent disparities in education. IES is also committed to broadening participation in education research. We need a wider range of schools and participants in education research to identify what works for whom and under what conditions. We also strive to increase the diversity of researchers and those being trained as future researchers, to broaden the perspectives of those working to improve education outcomes for all.

Our Co-Chairs for this year's PI meeting are Nikki Edgecombe (Teachers College, Columbia University), Venessa Keesler (Michigan Department of Education), and Carl Sumi (SRI International). We appreciate their efforts in suggesting the theme, recommending sessions, and identifying speakers to make this meeting interesting and useful to you.

In shaping the agenda, we have considered the input we received from you on the 2019 meeting, including providing more opportunities for you to share your work, engage in more in-depth discussion during sessions, and connect with other meeting participants and program officers. We have also reached out to all of you to get proposals for conference sessions. We appreciate your help in making this an excellent conference.

As in the past, our goal for the PI meeting is to provide opportunities for professional development and to foster discussion and networking among the nearly 800 PIs, Co-PIs, and training fellows currently supported by IES. Specific objectives include:

• Understanding IES leadership priorities and progress made this past year to address these priorities;
• Addressing emerging challenges and solutions in the field of education research and practice, such as the need to improve equity in education access and outcomes and research participation;
• Spotlighting new research findings and methodological approaches from IES-funded projects;
• Offering professional development on a range of substantive and methodological topics;
• Providing time for PIs to meet with their NCER and NCSER program officers and other researchers working on similar problems or issues; and
• Encouraging connections between IES fellows and others who may be seeking new research or career opportunities, and individuals who want to build new partnerships or fill open positions.

Please remember to fill out the evaluation form at the end of the 2020 meeting. We do pay attention to your comments.

We look forward to seeing you in January!

Elizabeth Albro, Commissioner, NCER & Joan McLaughlin, Commissioner, NCSER