Around the Centers

IES at AERA

Staff from the Director's office and all four IES Centers participated in the 2006 meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco April 7-11. In his major invitational talk, "Rigor and Relevance," Director Whitehurst outlined the near- and long-term plans of IES. It will take patience and substantial federal investment, Whitehurst told the researchers, but making education an evidence-based field will have a "transforming effect" in the same way computers and the Internet have transformed international commerce and telecommunications.

NCER Commissioner Lynn Okagaki spoke on "Advancing Research in the Education Sciences," while NCES Commissioner Mark Schneider discussed "Federal Statistical Data and the Advancement of Education Research." IES staffers chaired several sessions and presented at others. Examples: "Inclusion and Accommodation of English Language Learners" (Arnold Goldstein), "National Assessment of Title I" (Audrey Pendleton), "Measuring and Evaluating the Implementation of Comprehensive School Reform" (Ram Singh), and "Increasing the Accessibility of Large-Scale Assessment of Reading Proficiency for Students with Disabilities" (David Malouf).

Psychological Science's Observer Features IES Cognition Research

IES's Cognition and Student Learning program is featured in the March issue—and will be again in the May issue—of the Association for Psychological Science's Observer. As the March guest columnist for the Observer's Presidential Column, IES Director Russ Whitehurst provides an overview of the program and a glimpse of some of the new and innovative research supported by IES. For example, one team of researchers has discovered what may prove to be a basic principle of instruction—that students retain more when content instruction occurs from 10 to 20 percent of the interval over which students are expected to retain the material. For example, if instruction on content that is introduced in week one of a course is going to be included in a test 10 weeks later, students benefit greatly from having another opportunity to cover the material a week or two after it is introduced.

Read Whitehurst's remarks and articles written by Cognition principal investigators describing their projects: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=1935. The May Observer will highlight other IES Cognition projects. So far, 35 projects have been funded under the Cognition program, which seeks to improve learning by bringing recent advances in cognitive science to bear on significant problems in education.

Curious about our logo design?

The concept behind the design is that the ascending circles in the IES logo symbolize innovation, progress and improvement. The four circles represent the four Centers within IES.

Recently Released Publications

• Visit the NCES website for a list of NCES publications released during the last 90 days.
• Facts From NLTS2: School Behavior and Disciplinary Experiences of Youth With Disabilities
• Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: Selected Findings from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey
  Note: This is the first NCES report containing data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The restricted-use 2003-04 SASS data files will be available to researchers who are licensed NCES restricted data users. Apply for a data license
• The Adult Lives of At-Risk Students: The Roles of Attainment and Engagement in High School
• National Assessment of Title I (3 vols.): Executive Summary; Implementation of Title I; and Closing the Reading Gap.
• Comparing Science Content in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2000 and Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 Assessments